The Performance of European Works Councils in Engineering: Perspectives of the Employee Representatives

Abstract

Drawing on a structured survey of European works council representatives within the engineering industry, this paper identifies a number of shortfalls in the performance of European works councils. In particular, it shows that European works council representatives retain a national rather than a European point of reference and are critical of the integration of European works councils with other aspects of trade union organization and activity. In contrast, European works council representatives welcome the transparency within multinational companies introduced by the directive. The paper concludes in terms of a range of revisions that might usefully be introduced to improve the performance of the directive.

European Works Councils after two decades

“…A prominent finding of case study research is that EWCs are at different stages of development, with some remaining rudimentary or symbolic and others becoming collective actors with sophisticated transnational procedures (Lecher et al, 1999). The use of quantitative methods is infrequent, and a quarter of the articles using such methods have the same author (Waddington 2003(Waddington , 2006a(Waddington , 2006b. The contribution to this Special Issue by De Spiegelaere and Waddington follows this approach.…”

“…EWC representatives view the quality of information and, particularly, consultation as inadequate for this task (Waddington 2006b(Waddington , 2011. They report that management releases huge volumes of information, much of which is irrelevant, immediately prior to the meeting, but that information on key issues is often not made available (Telljohann et al, 2009).…”

“…These arose from a range of national, sectoral and company factors, such as the lack of common traditions, cultures and language, limited access to training and resource availability (Fulton, 1995;Miller and Stirling, 1998). Whilst in some cases management is reluctant to engage meaningfully with EWCs, in others their contested nature may limit their advancement, as the parties wish to pursue different courses of development (Marginson et al, 2004;Waddington, 2006b).…”

Non-union worker representation through civil society organisations: evidence from the United Kingdom

“…Even non‐union worker representation institutions that are governed by statutory provisions, and which may have a union presence, such as EWCs, are generally seen as being relatively ineffectual (e.g. Waddington, 2006).…”

Obstacles to transnational trade union cooperation in Europe—results from a European survey

“…2 2 There are of course exceptions, for example, Gennard and Newsome (2005), Nergaard and Dølvik (2005), cf. Waddington (2006). …”