Workers' commissions step up activity in restructured companies
Objavljeno: 27 April 2000
Statistics indicate that the number of sub-commissions set up by workers' commissions in Portugal increased appreciably during 1999. Commentators believe that this may reflect attempts by workers' representatives in restructured companies to make their presence felt more strongly in the workplace.
Download article in original language : PT0004189NPT.DOC
Statistics indicate that the number of sub-commissions set up by workers' commissions in Portugal increased appreciably during 1999. Commentators believe that this may reflect attempts by workers' representatives in restructured companies to make their presence felt more strongly in the workplace.
Ministry of Labour statistics indicate that a particularly high number of active sub-commissions set up by workers' commission s were in operation during 1999. The law requires that workers' commissions (comissões de trabalhadores) - workplace-level employee representative bodies - register when they are set up and after each election thereafter. Sub-commissions (subcomissões) can be created by workers' commissions in companies with a number of establishments in different locations, while coordinating commissions (commissões coordenadoras) may be set up to bring together commissions in different enterprises, with the aim of "improved intervention in economic restructuring".
The table below shows that the number of workers' commissions has remained essentially stable over the past four years, while the number of sub-commissions has risen sharply, by 49.3% between 1998 and 1999. In 1999, 81.2% of the commissions were in private enterprises, 18.1% in public enterprises and 0.7% in the public administration.
| . | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
| Commissions | 219 | 206 | 219 | 226 |
| Sub-commissions | 272 | 299 | 247 | 369 |
| Coordinating commissions | 7 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
Source: database of DGCT , Ministry of Labour.
A large number of the new sub-commissions have been set up in the banking, postal, transport and electricity sectors and, overwhelmingly, in privatised companies or companies undergoing privatisation. Some industrial relations practitioners have stated that this may represent an attempt to become more proactive on the part of the workers' commissions (though they have also pointed out that after being created, the sub-commissions have often not gone on to function with any regularity). In any case, there seem to be clear signs that workforce representatives and, in many cases the trade unions that motivate workers' commission activity, are seeking to make their presence more strongly felt in the workplace.
The legislation transposing the EU Directive on European Works Councils (EWC s) into Portuguese law, which came into force in 1999 (PT9912176F), also provides for the registration of these new Councils and their elected representatives. Although it is well-known that there are a large number of worker representatives on the EWCs of transnational companies operating in Portugal in various sectors, the Ministry figures reveal that so far the name of only one representative on an EWC in a company headquartered outside Portugal has been registered.
Eurofound priporoča, da to publikacijo navedete na naslednji način.
Eurofound (2000), Workers' commissions step up activity in restructured companies, article.
