News

Yesterday, on 6 June 2011, the European Directive 2009/38/EC “on the establishment of a European Works Council or a procedure in Community-scale undertakings and Community-scale groups of undertakings for the purposes of informing and consulting employees” entered into force.



By this day, all member states of the European Economic Area (EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) should have transposed this Directive into their national law.



It will apply to all European Works Councils (EWCs) whose agreements were signed under the previous Directive 94/45/EC as well as to all new EWC agreements signed from this day on. The new Directive brings some significant improvements for Europe’s employees, such as a definition for the terms “Information” and “Consultation” and a clarification on what “transnational issues” are. Employees receive more rights, such as training without loss of wages or the direct involvement of trade union experts in the EWC.



This means, EWCs should – with immediate effect - be able to receive information of better quality on their company’s strategies at an earlier stage and enter into a more serious dialogue with management than they could under the old legislation.

UNI Europa will support EWCs in implementing these improvements in practice and is committed to developing EWCs into strong bodies that influence companie’s decision making.



Find an overview on the national transposition of Directive here.

Find more information on the European Commission’s website.