Following my posting on April 4th regarding the revsion of the EWC Directive and the decsion by the main European employers bodies to open negotiations with the ETUC, today the ETUC has said it has concluded "After intensive contacts with both BusinessEurope and the European Commission on the question of the revision of the European Works Council Directive, that it is not practical for negotiations to commence within the framework of the social dialogue".
"This is because there would be insufficient time for both negotiations and for the issue to be dealt with in the lifetime of this Commission and Parliament. Furthermore, it has not been possible to identify a realistic basis for agreement on certain key issues on which there have been, and are, fundamental differences with BusinessEurope. For these reasons, social dialogue talks in the current circumstances are impracticable".
Said General Secretary John Monks: “The ETUC prefers to try to resolve problems through the social dialogue, but given the time constraints and the depth of differences with the employers over European Works Councils, it is not practical to expect talks to succeed in a short period. We are therefore calling on the Commission to follow up its consultation document and act decisively both to strengthen European Works Councils and worker and union participation. We are also calling on the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers to support our position.”
This means that the Commission may now revise the Directive and in effect impose changes to strengthen tEWC's...Lets hope so!
As posted on April 4th, there are around 40 EWC's in the graphical, paper and packaging industries in the EU.
For more information check out
http://www.etuc.org/a/4867
About Tony Burke
Tony Burke is an Assistant General Secretary at the UK and Ireland's biggest trade union, Unite the Union.
Unite was formed on 1st May, 2007 by a merger of Amicus and TGWU. He heads up the Unite GPM sector, leading a team of experienced full time National and Regional Officers covering the Print, Paper, Packaging, Newspapers, Publishing and Media industries.
Tony was Deputy General Secretary of the print, paper and media union the GPMU until it merged, with the skills and professional union Amicus in 2004. Tony is a member of the General Council and Executive Committee of the TUC and also a number of senior committee’s of the global union Union Network International (UNI) Graphical; a member of the Executive Committee of the European Chemical, Energy and Mineworkers Federation; the chair of the TUC's Organising Academy Board; a member of the board of Vision In Print And Packaging and a trade union appointed member of the board of COGENT - the sector skills council for the Chemical, Oil, Pharmaceutical, Energy and Nuclear Industries. He is also a member of the Board Of Management of The Peoples Press Printing Society.
This blog will contain news from Unite, graphical, paper and media unions throughout Europe and the world and news and comment on industrial relations issues important to Unite members, managers and our industries. Feel free to comment on the issues that are posted here.