Transnational collective bargaining and European Works Councils - research on substantive agreements
Description
This project will look at the subject of transnational collective bargaining (TCB) and aims at collecting transnational agreements and developing their inventory/database.
The approach to TCB will be a multidisciplinary one. It will establish the links between this topic and EWC, worker participation, social dialogue and collective bargaining on an empirical, legal and political basis. It will look at questions like why this topic is on the political agenda in Europe at the moment, what is the link to the EWC Directive?
EWC have been increasingly involved in signing transnational agreements of different form and content that go beyond the standards set out in the Directive 94/45. These accords between EWC, company managements and sometimes third parties are of different nature and comprise common declarations, common positions, restructuring agreements, European social schemes, etc. and are thus collectively known as substantive agreements, joint texts or transnational agreements.
By engaging in negotiations on a cross-border scale, EWC develop towards supranational bargaining bodies, i.e. structures unprecedented in the history of industrial relations in Europe.
This project aims at collecting such transnational agreements and developing their inventory/database. Such a database will subsequently become a part of the ETUI-REHS database on EWC.
Moreover, it will be the objective of the project to analyse the content of these agreements in terms of issues regulated, form and legal status of the agreement, procedures for implementation, monitoring and follow-up and, most importantly, the role that EWC and trade unions played in their preparation and adoption.
To achieve these goals an analysis of the transnational agreements will be conducted. Furthermore, to assess the quality of input provided by the EWC in the process of preparation of such transnational agreements, some 5 to 10 case studies will be conducted. The case studies will comprise semi-structured interviews with representatives of EWC, management and possibly trade union officials as well as, optionally, with EWC coordinators from European Industry Federations, aiming at gathering viewpoints of different stakeholders on this matter.
The outcome of this joint project will be a working paper and possible publication (report or brochure) in English. In the short term perspective a paper should be produced on the question of the pros and cons of a legal framework on TCB and the questions the discussion raises for European trade unions. In the longer term perspective the topics will be analysed from all the above mentioned angles, foreseeing a meeting between experts on the topic and a publication.
Researchers
Wiebke Warneck
Researcherphone: +32 (0) 2 224 05 32
Jeremy Waddington
Project Co-ordinator of the ETUI-REHS, Researchphone: + 44 161 306 8797
Isabelle Schömann
Senior Researcher, ETUI-REHS - NETLEX Coordinatorphone: +32 (0) 2 224 07 24 and + 49 421 200 5020
Dr. Norbert Kluge
Senior researcher. Head of the ETUI-REHS SEEurope projectphone: +32 (0) 2 224 05 08
Dr. Maarten Keune
Senior researcher, ETUI-REHSphone: +32 (0) 2 224 07 23
Romuald Jagodzinski
Researcherphone: +32 (2) 224 04 73
Stefan Clauwaert
Senior researcher, ETUI-REHSphone: +32 (0) 2 224 05 04
