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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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Eurofound expert(s)

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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)

Strabag is a multinational building and construction company. It operates in three areas: building construction and civil engineering; road construction; and tunnelling and services, in more than 500 locations worldwide. In 2009, Strabag SE had 75,500 employees, of which more than 80% worked in

20 October 2011

Fresenius was one of the first German companies with a two-tier corporate governance structure to become a European company in July 2007. The actors involved in the negotiation process worked under the impression to accomplish pioneer work. Both the management and the employee side representatives

20 October 2011

The Hager Group is a family-run company based in the German Saarland with approximately 10,000 employees worldwide. The company offers a complete range of systems, solutions and services for energy distribution in buildings, including security solutions as well as electrical installations supplies

20 October 2011

Elcoteq is a global contract manufacturer of electronic equipment headquartered in Luxembourg. While the origins of the company are in Finland where Elcoteq was founded in 1984, the established production sites in European as well as non-European countries. Until 2008 the European centre of the

20 October 2011

This study examined best practice examples of social partner involvement in greening the economy in different Member States. It analysed the role of the trade unions and employers’ associations as well as employees, their direct representatives and company management in selected projects at national

28 June 2011

In spring 2009, Eurofound launched a large-scale representative survey addressed to managers and employee representatives. The European Company Survey 2009 – Flexibility practices and social dialogue (ECS) is the second European-wide establishment survey launched by Eurofound. The European Company

30 May 2011

The European Company Survey 2009 on flexibility practices and social dialogue is the second European-wide establishment survey to be undertaken by Eurofound. The survey documents flexibility strategies in firms and is a unique source of comparative information on social dialogue at the workplace

30 May 2011

GfK, the German-based market research company, transformed itself into an SE in 2009. Management saw the change as reflecting GfK’s international perspectives and structure, although it also had the side effect of avoiding a major change in the composition of the supervisory board. The

23 May 2011

The reinsurance group SCOR was the first French listed company to create a European Company (SE) with employee participation. Three parallel agreements secure employee involvement through a common SE works council for the SCOR SE and its two subsidiaries. This was an important progress, since with

25 April 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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