EWC Platform report

On 4 November 2008 an EWC platform meeting was organised about the re-negotiation of the EWC agreement.

During this Platform meeting, the necessary attention was paid to the revision of the EWC Directive (more on the subject in this newsletter). The issue of re-negotiation however was the main part of the meeting. Draka’s Arjen de Jong recounted recent re-negotiations of the EWC agreement in his company in detail. In exchange for fewer EWC seats the management was prepared to better define the EWC’s information and consultation rights in the agreement. In the end the EWC will have 23 instead of 19 seats, and countries with fewer than 50 workers will be represented by the Select Committee (see also the article about Draka in this newsletter).

The right to assistance from interpreters at meetings and the translation of important documents – another item that the management wanted to discuss – remains unchanged in the Draka EWC agreement. In the discussion with management it quickly became clear that the EWC simply cannot operate without this kind of assistance.

The language issue was discussed quite extensively during the meeting. There were very different opinions on the Platform on the question of whether one can require that all EWC members can speak or learn English. By imposing this, one is immediately excluding a “big group” from the EWC. The management prefers deliberations to take place in English as a rule and this is often an negotiation issue. A solution can be found by setting out that the EWC will strive towards everybody speaking English and enshrining the right to language classes in the agreement. Another possibility is to give the EWC two years to learn English. After two years one would see whether the member is good enough at English to be able to operation without help. All Platform participants did agree that one should see to it, as an EWC member, that one has at least some basic knowledge of English, so that one is able to read emails and reply to them. There is nothing to be ashamed of if one needs interpreting for complex meetings. Of course there are differences between companies here: the type of activity and the level of education of the members play an important role.

The experiences of the EWCs that were present at the Platform meeting with re-negotiation were very different. One EWC has laid down in the agreement, by way of compromise, that travelling to the meeting venue for two-day meetings would take place on Saturday when tickets are cheaper.

The meeting location of the EWC was also up for discussion: should the EWC travel to different locations or should one always convene in the same place? Several options are possible. When there are two meetings a year the EWC can meet in the home country once and once in another location. Another option would be a mobile Select Committee.

The question of who actually leads the re-negotiations was also debated. Of course the whole EWC has to approve the new agreement, but in practice one chooses to have the re-negotiation take place in a smaller circle. An example of this are the re-negotiations between the Select Committee (including the consultant) and the HR Manager with the CEO. In another example the Select Committee gathers the ideas of the EWC about the main lines of the agreement and then gets a mandate to negotiate on behalf of the EWC.

2009 Platform meetings

The next Platform meeting is on 17 March from 1 to 6 pm in Woerden. The subject of this meeting is: “The Crisis, Reorganisations and the Role of the EWC”.

The other meetings in 2009 are on 30 June and 01 December.