Employers accept European codetermination in another European company
Soon the employees of the future tesa SE will for the first time be able to encounter their management on an equal footing at European level. The approximately 2,700 employees from 25 European countries will then be represented by a European company (SE) works council. This is the result of the agreement concluded recently between the Special Negotiating Body and the enterprise management after around six months of negotiations supported by IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie (mining, chemicals and energy trade union) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI).
tesa SE will be one more German company that has adopted the dual model of corporate governance with management and a supervisory board based on codetermination at transnational level.
According to the agreement, the SE works council can arbitrate or intervene to address social problems if there is no statutory or trade union representation. In 15 of the countries represented, in which employees work in establishments with fewer than 30 personnel, such interest representation is in all likelihood improbable under national law. This makes it possible that the practical activity of the SE works council will be able to entrench the concept of codetermination in the enterprise more deeply than hitherto.
Reiner Hoffmann, European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) Deputy General Secretary, as well as Reinhard Reibsch, General Secretary of European Mining, Chemical and Energy Federation (EMCEF), sees the agreement as an example of the transposition of ‘lived’ social partnership in Germany to European level: ‘the agreement sets a positive example for transnational workers’ participation in the supervisory board in enterprises of this size’.
This is a joint press release by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the European Mining, Chemical and Energy Federation (EMCEF).
Further information
The European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) has established a topical website on worker participation - www.worker-participation.eu. The website also provides information on European companies and in particular on worker participation at EU level.
Moreover, ETUI has developed a tool providing comparative data on the basics of the national industrial relations systems. To date, the tool is available only in English and German.
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