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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)

European Works Councils case studies: GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)

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). Both the companies that merged to form GSK in December 2000 had established EWCs under this Directive.

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

European Works Councils case studies: the Suez 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

European Works Councils case studies: The Marazzi 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

European Works Councils case studies: Air France

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: HSBC

​The HSBC group, which has its headquarters in the UK, is one of the largest banking and financial services organisations in the world, with more than 8,000 offices in 80 different countries.

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

European Works Councils case studies: Sandvik Specialty Steels

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

EWCs in the new Member States - Case study: ABB

ABB is a global company, based in Switzerland and working mainly in the field of energy and automation technology. This case study is based on interviews carried out in the Czech Republic and Poland between March and May 2006 with representatives of the ABB EWC Secretariat in Mannheim, Germany, a

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

EWCs in the new Member States - Case study: MOL

MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas Company is a leading integrated oil and gas group in Central and Eastern Europe and, in terms of sales revenues, the largest company in Hungary. This case study is based on interviews carried out in Hungary and Slovakia in April 2006 with HR management representatives and

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

European Works Councils case studies: Volkswagen

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: Boehringer

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
Online resources results (298)

New deal on social dialogue in insurance sector

Reforms in trade union law are giving individual workers greater powers to select their representatives at company level. The transition phase for these reforms, set out in law on 20 August 2008, is expected to last until 2017. Before this reform, the status of representativeness by a trade union

1 svibnja 2011
Article
Social dialogue
Agreements
Social partners
Employee representation
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

Works council elections 2010 – survey results

On 1 February 2011, the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW Köln [1]) presented the results (in German, 220Kb PDF) [2] of the latest works council elections held between March and May 2010. There is no public register of works councils, and the results of the works council elections are not

24 ožujka 2011
Article
Employee representation

Government’s final proposal on modernising industrial relations

In February 2006, in a joint memorandum entitled /Legal Enactment and Legislation of the Right of Workers to Join a Trade Union Organisation and Bargain Collectively/, the country’s main trade union organisations – the Democratic Labour Federation of Cyprus (DEOK [1]), Pancyprian Federation of

9 siječnja 2011
Article
Employee representation
Social partners
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

Decline of the Danish shop steward

According to a recent study by Trine P. Larsen, Steen E. Navrbjerg and Mikkel Møller Johansen at the Employment Relations Research Centre ( FAOS [1]), University of Copenhagen, only one in two Danish workplaces have a shop steward (workplace union members’ representative [2]). The study /Shop

14 studenog 2010
Article
Social partners
Employee representation
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

Labour authority fines Hankook for obstructing union

In 2006, the Korean tyre company Hankook chose Hungary to be the centre of its European supply operations and received more than €100 million from the Hungarian government to support the investment. The factory opened in 2007 and ever since there have been regular industrial disputes between

31 listopada 2010
Article
Social partners
Employee representation
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

No agreement on extending worker representation

In March 2010, a public committee set up to review the state of industrial democracy in Norway presented its recommendations in the form of a comprehensive report (in Norwegian) [1] (NOU 2010: 1). The recommendations show that there is a general consensus about the importance of the present

18 listopada 2010
Article
Employee representation
Participation at work
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

Extended international framework agreement at PSA Peugeot Citroën

The PSA Peugeot Citroën Group [1] has 190,000 employees worldwide, including 104,500 in France and 61,200 in Europe. It operates in 160 countries, generating one third of its sales outside Europe. The group owns two major subsidiaries: Faurecia [2] (52,715 employees) and Gefco [3] (9,620 employees)

16 rujna 2010
Article
Agreements
Social protection
Employee representation
Participation at work
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

Reform of representativeness and social dialogue

In August 2008, the French parliament adopted a law on ‘social democracy and working time [1] reform’, which has radically changed the rules regarding trade union representativeness [2]. By 2012, the majority rule (which states that a trade union affiliated to a representative confederation at

9 kolovoza 2010
Article
Employee representation
Labour and social regulation

Trade union rights for police officers

The Employment and Industrial Relations Act (EIRA) (216Kb PDF) [1], which regulates labour relations in Malta, defines ‘employment’ in relation to a trade dispute as any relationship whereby one person does work or performs services for another, ‘other than a service as a member of a disciplined

22 srpnja 2010
Article
Social partners
Employee representation
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue

Assessing employee representation and collective bargaining coverage

The Institute for Employment Research (Institut für Arbeitsmarktforschung, IAB [1]) of the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, BA [2]) hosts the IAB Establishment Panel (IAB-Betriebspanel [3]), from which it derived the latest data on collective bargaining [4] coverage and employee

30 lipnja 2010
Article
Collective bargaining
Employee representation
Industrial relations
Industrial relations and social dialogue
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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