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Employee representation

Employee representation may be defined as the right of employees to seek a union or individual to represent them for the purpose of negotiating with management on such issues as wages, hours, benefits and working conditions. In the workplace, workers may be represented by trade union and through works councils – or similar structures elected by all employees. EU law has established rights and obligations for employees and their representatives to be informed and consulted via a set of directives that provide for the information and consultation of the workers, at both national and international level.

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Ricardo Rodriguez Contreras is a research manager in the Working Life unit at Eurofound and focuses on comparative industrial relations, social dialogue and collective bargaining...

Research manager,
Working life research unit
Publications results (74)

Social dialogue still matters in Europe. Recent EU-level policy debates have highlighted that, particularly since the 2008 crisis, the emergence of new debates on social justice, democracy, the quality of work and new models for labour relations have been challenging traditional industrial relations

12 July 2016

This report studies practices in EU establishments for direct and indirect employee participation in decision-making. Indirect employee participation is the involvement of employee representatives in decision-making processes, while direct employee participation describes direct interaction between

14 December 2015

This report examines the differences in alignment, timing and content of workplace information and consultation processes at national and European level. It compares the legal situation at national and European level in six EU Member States: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the

07 July 2015

European Works Councils (EWCs) provide an important vehicle for transnational information and consultation in multinational companies. This report explores the efforts of 10 EWCs to make these bodies optimally fit for purpose for European company level social dialogue. Looking at the developments in

10 June 2015

The aims of this project are to explore recent experiences in the practice of information and consultation (I&C) at national level, building on the findings of the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO) 2011 report entitled Information and consultation practice across Europe five years

30 May 2013

This report analyses data from Eurofound’s European Company Survey of 2009 to examine the incidence of performance-related pay (PRP) in European establishments and what determines it, with a specific focus on the role of employment relations. Larger establishments, those in foreign ownership, in the

16 October 2012

The financial global crisis, the deepest the world has experienced since the 1930s, originated in the US mortgage market and led to a liquidity shortfall in the US banking system, the full effect of which started to be felt in August 2007. One of the first victims was the UK bank Northern Rock

16 February 2012

An increasingly important aspect of EU policy making is that of ‘greening’ the economy, in the face of an urgent need to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Greening the economy means producing products and services with less energy, fewer raw materials and with reduced carbon emissions. It

16 February 2012

This study shows the main characteristics and specifics of the ARC sector in four European countries. The overall picture shows that the activities of contractors go beyond the agricultural and forestry sectors, into construction services or services to public authorities. The project also shows

15 January 2012

Across Europe, diverse forms of employee representation structures have developed, providing workers with differing opportunities to voice their interests and to be consulted by their employers directly, at their workplaces, on matters such as economic and human resources developments, working

20 November 2011

Online resources results (298)

Trade union federations announce merger plans

Before 1990, Hungary had just one trade union federation, the National Council of Trade Unions (SZOT). In 1990, political change brought the country’s first democratically elected government, and allowed more trade unions to be formed. Not only were sectoral trade unions established, but also a

Major changes afoot for biggest union federation

Key decisions were taken about the structure of the biggest employee organisation in the Netherlands, the Dutch Trade Federation (FNV [1]) which has 1.3 million members, at a conference held on 8 and 9 October 2012. [1] http://www.fnv.nl/english

Union campaign targets precarious work

In April 2013, Malta’s General Workers’ Union (GWU [1]) conducted a campaign against precarious work practices. The campaign was targeted mainly at companies in the cleaning sector and providers of security services. [1] http://www.gwu.org.mt

Cross-industry bipartite social dialogue established

Bipartite social dialogue was established at cross-sector level in Slovakia in February 2013. Senior representatives of the country’s social partners in industry and construction signed a /contract on cooperation/ on 31 January 2013.

Pay to rise in electronics industry after strike action

More than 14,000 Slovenian steel and electronics workers at 102 companies took part in a strike on 23 January 2013 in support of their wage demands (*SI1301041I* [1]). The strike was organised by the Steel and Electronics Industries Union of Slovenia (SKEI [2]), which is a member of the Union of

Job cuts at restructuring flag carrier airline

Iberia, the Spanish flag carrier airline, currently employs nearly 20,000 people. In 2010, it became part of the holding company International Airlines Group (IAG [1]), the third largest worldwide commercial airline by revenue. [1] http://www.iairgroup.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=240949&p=index

Information and consultation case highlights corporate complexity

A general framework for informing and consulting employees was introduced by the EU Directive 2002/14/EC [1]. The regulations were transposed into UK law by the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations 2004 [2] (*UK0502103N* [3]). The regulations’ collective provisions are

Workplace representation reforms proposed

Draft legislation based on a consultative document prepared by Luxembourg’s Ministry of Work and Employment, Social dialogue within companies (in French, 288Kb PDF) [1], is intended to reform social dialogue [2] within businesses in the country. The Luxembourg Government [3] has passed the draft of

Inter-union transfer agreed following staff moves

An agreement has been reached to change the union membership of 700 workers redeployed from Ireland’s state training agency FÁS to the Department of Social Protection. The staff were transferred early in 2012 under the terms of the Public Service Agreement 2010–2014 (324Kb PDF), also known as the

First workplace elections in very small enterprises

The rules on representativeness [1] in France (*FR0808039I* [2]) were reformed by the Law of 20 August 2008 (in French) [3]. The reform meant trade union organisations have to receive at least 10% of the votes cast (at company level) and 8% of votes in the sectors and on an interprofessional level


Blogs results (1)
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Trade unions in many EU Member States face the issue of declining membership. This is a fundamental challenge for organised labour, but it is premature to speak about the redundancy unions: when it comes to important decisions affecting the workplace, restructuring being one, trade unions remain a

20 studenog 2019
Data results (1)
24 listopada 2023
Reference period:

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