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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

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)

Employee involvement in companies under the European Company Statute (ECS): Equens SE

Headquartered in Utrecht/The Netherlands with subsidiaries in Germany, Italy and Finland, Equens is a full-service payment processing company offering services in payment and card processing and a European leader in this business segment. The transformation of Equens N.V. into an SE was concluded in

25 April 2011
Publication
Case study
Employee representation
Participation at work
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

Employee involvement in companies under the European Company Statute (ECS): MAN SE

MAN was the first German company to create a SE, by the conversion of its subsidiary MAN B&W Diesel into MAN Diesel SE in August 2006. This was followed in 2009 by the conversion of MAN itself into MAN SE. Both management and the employee representatives were well prepared for negotiating an

25 April 2011
Publication
Case study
Employee representation
Participation at work
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

Employee involvement in companies under the European Company Statute (ECS): Allianz SE

Allianz SE is an integrated financial services provider with more than 150,000 employees. The company serves approximately 75 million customers in about 70 countries. Allianz SE operates and manages its activities primarily through four operating segments: property-casualty, life/health, asset

13 March 2011
Publication
Case study
Employee representation
Participation at work
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

Employee involvement in companies under the European Company Statute

The European Company Statute (SE) is based on the Council Regulation on the Statute for a European Company (2157/2001/EC) and on the Directive supplementing the Statute for a European Company with regard to the involvement of employees (2001/86/EC). It is one of the most important pieces of company

08 March 2011
Publication
Research report
Participation at work
Employee representation
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

Industrial relations, social dialogue and working time: The commerce sector in Europe

This report presents some descriptive findings of Eurofound’s European Company Survey (ECS) 2009 on the structure of industrial relations and social dialogue as well as working time patterns in the commerce sector in Europe. Collective bargaining coverage and the degree of employee representation in

01 December 2010
Publication
Research report
Working time
Working conditions
Collective bargaining
Employee representation
Industrial relations
Working conditions and sustainable work
Industrial relations and social dialogue

EMCC case studies: Impact of the financial and economic crisis - Study on ArcelorMittal Galati subsidiary (Romania)

This case study focuses on the measures used by ArcelorMittal to cut costs and avoid involuntary redundancies during the crisis in its largest Romanian subsidiary. The study aims to assess the effectiveness of the various measures applied to keep staff in employment and to ensure the company’s

26 September 2010
Publication
Case study
Working time
Structural change
Employee representation
Social partners
Restructuring
Industrial relations
Employment and labour markets
Industrial relations and social dialogue

European Works Councils in practice: Key research findings - Background paper

European Works Councils (EWCs) are highly significant in terms of European industrial relations. They represent the first genuinely European institution of worker interest representation at enterprise level. They reflect the growing recognition of the need to respond to the ‘Europeanisation’ of

12 May 2009
Publication
Customised report
Employee representation
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

European Works Councils case studies: Securitas AB

In September 1994, the Council of Ministers decided on a Directive on the establishment of a European Works Council for the purposes of informing and consulting employees (94/45/EC). The emergence of European Works Councils (EWCs) is a major part of the development of an industrial relations system

16 October 2008
Publication
Case study
Employee representation
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

European Works Councils case studies: IKEA

In September 1994, the Council of Ministers decided on a Directive on the establishment of a European Works Council for the purposes of informing and consulting employees (94/45/EC). The emergence of European Works Councils (EWCs) is a major part of the development of an industrial relations system

16 October 2008
Publication
Case study
Employee representation
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

European Works Councils case studies: the Eiffage group

In September 1994, the Council of Ministers decided on a Directive on the establishment of a European Works Council (EWC) for the purposes of informing and consulting employees (94/45/EC). The emergence of EWCs is a major part of the development of an industrial relations system at European level

16 October 2008
Publication
Case study
Employee representation
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue
Online resources results (298)

Unions seek better employee representation in very small enterprises

On 20 January 2010, the Craftwork Employers’ Association (Union professionnelle artisanale, UPA [1]) and four trade union confederations signed a joint letter (in French, 40Kb PDF) [2] addressed to the country’s Prime Minister, François Fillon, and the Minister of Labour, Xavier Darcos. The letter

15 ožujka 2010
Article
Employee representation

Private childcare workers demand better pay and working conditions

In Austria, most kindergarten and professional childcare facilities for children up to the age of six years are run by the authorities, mainly at provincial (/Land/) or local state level. The employees of these public care institutions are all covered by clear-cut employment regulations, which are

7 ožujka 2010
Article
Working conditions and sustainable work
Employee representation

Small trade unions oppose change in union law

On 2 December 2009, following an invitation from the Pancyprian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (Παγκύπρια Ομοσπονδία Ανεξάρτητων Συντεχνιών, POAS), a number of independent trade unions attended a meeting with the aim of examining the draft bill introduced to the House of Representatives in

16 veljače 2010
Article
Labour and social regulation
Social partners
Employee representation
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

Industrial relations in the EU Member States and candidate countries

European Union enlargement is approaching fast, with up to 12 countries from central and eastern Europe and the Mediterranean likely to join the EU from 2004 onwards. In this context, the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO) has started to expand its coverage of industrial relations

29 rujna 2002
Article
Pay and income
Working time
Collective bargaining
Participation at work
Social dialogue
Employee representation
Working conditions
Employment and labour markets
Industrial relations
Working conditions and sustainable work
Industrial relations and social dialogue

2002 works council elections start

Between 1 March and 31 May 2002, works council election [1] s are taking place in German establishments under the terms of new Works Constitution Act (Betriebsverfassungsgesetz, BetrVG) passed in 2001 (DE0107234F [2]). The BetrVG, which had previously remained almost unchanged for 30 years

25 travnja 2002
Article
Employee representation
Social partners

Company law changes have implications for employee representatives

A number of legislative proposals issued in 2001 and 2002 aim to strengthen the position of the general meeting of shareholders in Dutch companies in relation to company management and, in some cases, even the supervisory board. At the same time, the powers of employee representatives will remain

23 travnja 2002
Article
Labour and social regulation
Employee representation

Problems emerge as works councils' role expands

In broad terms, works councils have become a generally accepted phenomenon in the Netherlands, and their role has expanded considerably over the years. At the same time, however, mounting problems have arisen, relating to issues such as a lack of interest in works councils among employees and the

2 travnja 2002
Article
Employee representation
Participation at work

Research examines employee representation

Late 2001 saw the publication by the Ministry of Employment of two studies of employee representation in French firms, based on widely-differing statistical sources. The Ministry published both the results of the 1999 works council elections and the findings of a survey of the existence of various

28 siječnja 2002
Article
Employee representation
Social partners

Union density and labour market participation among immigrant workers examined

Recent figures from the Statistics Norway (Statistisk Sentralbyrå, SSB) show that labour market participation among 'non-western' immigrants (ie those from outside Europe and North America) in Norway is still low, and there are indications to suggest that this is very much due to a general

28 studenog 2001
Article
Migration and mobility
Employment and labour markets
Employee representation
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

Decentralisation of working time regulation to enterprise level assessed

One of the goals of the Dutch Working Time Act of 1996 was to transfer decision-making on working time to the enterprise or even plant level. A survey evaluating the effects of the Act, carried out in 2000 and published in 2001, finds that the ability of employee representatives to counter

1 studenog 2001
Article
Working time
Employee representation
Participation at work
Blogs results (1)
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Restructuring: Do unions still matter?

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
Sara Riso
Blog
Restructuring
Working conditions
Employee representation
Industrial relations
Employment and labour markets
Working conditions and sustainable work
Industrial relations and social dialogue
Data results (1)

European Company Survey

24 listopada 2023
Reference period:
2019

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