Eurocadres

Eurocadres is one of three cross-industry confederations on the employees’ side taking part in European social dialogue allowed under Articles 154 and 155 TFEU. Eurocadres, the Council of European Professional and Managerial Staff, is a cross-industry social partner recognised by the European Commission. It is – together with the European Confederation of Executives and Managerial Staff (CEC) – described in the Communication COM (98) 322 final, ‘Adapting and promoting the social dialogue at Community level’, as a ‘cross-industry organisation representing certain categories of workers or undertakings’. In contrast to ETUC (a general cross-industry organisation), Eurocadres focuses on representing the growing number of professional and managerial staff in Europe, a group which accounted for around 15% of all employees in the EU Member States in 2010.

Eurocadres was created in November 1993 from inside the ETUC. The impetus came from the the perception that managers and executives – despite having the formal status of employees – have specific needs and that their interests are best served by special organisations. Nevertheless, Eurocadres has continued its associated with ETUC.

Eurocadres has a membership of more than 5 million, represents all branches of industry, both public and private, and is directly or indirectly present in all the Member States of the European Union, though not to the same extent. Eurocadres is composed of 47 national member organisations and 12 European members. Some members of Eurocadres are in fact unions or other organisations of salaried employees affiliated to their country’s main trade union confederation, which in turn is affiliated to ETUC. These unions or organisations do not always have a proper organisation or specific section for professional and managerial staff, but instead tend to have ‘coordination units’ or ‘secretariats’.

The constitutional bodies of Eurocadres are the Congress and the Executive Committee. The Congress meets every four years and is responsible for determining the policy guidelines within the framework of Eurocadres’ general objectives. The Congress also elects the members of the Executive Committee which has – in accordance with the Congress decisions – the overall responsibility for activities and policies between the Congresses. A Presidium, composed of the President, Vice-president, Treasurer, Executive Officer and the other officers, is responsible for taking decisions between Executive Committee meetings. A General Assembly is held every year when there is no Congress.

As a recognised social partner, Eurocadres is consulted by the European Commission on all social policy and industrial relations initiatives. Such consultation is required under articles 154 and 155 TFEU relating to European social dialogue. The organisation participates in the workers’ delegation which meets to negotiate with the European employers’ associations (BUSINESSEUROPE, UEAPME and CEEP). It has taken part in all the negotiations on European cross-sectoral agreements since the part-time work and fixed term work agreements.

In 1999, Eurocadres and CEC signed a cooperation agreement which led to the establishment of the liaison committee (EU9908186F). During social dialogue negotiations, the Eurocadres/CEC liaison committee is usually part of the ETUC employees’ delegation. Although they may formulate different opinions on some issues, the cooperation between the ETUC, Eurocadres and CEC works well. During the last few years, there were no differences between the organisations concerning major issues on the European agenda.

See also: Agreement on Social Policy; Collective organisation of the social partners; employee representation; ETUC; EU system of industrial relations; European collective agreements; European social dialogue; European social dialogue via Articles 154-155 TFEU; European social model; European social partners; Liaison Forum; management and labour; representativeness; social dialogue; social dialogue summits; tripartite concertation; Tripartite Social Summit.