Employee involvement : a European perspective

Abstract

The history of the attempts to establish Community-level rules on employee involvement is closely linked to the history of the European Community itself. The employee information and consultation procedures, together with participation procedures in a limited number of directives, are crucial elements not only in the EU's industrial relations systems, but also in the European social model itself. Moreover, employee involvement in the operation and future of the undertaking is seen as partly increasing its competitiveness. Involvement is regarded as a prerequisite for the success of the restructuring and adaptation of undertakings to the new conditions created by globalization of the economy. The rights in question are recognized and safeguarded in an extensive series of directives, in a process culminating in the signing of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in December 2000, and its subsequent incorporation into the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. Article II-87 of the Constitution for Europe entitled 'Workers' rights to information and consultation within the undertaking', reads, "Workers or their representatives must, at the appropriate levels, be guaranteed information and consultation in good time in the cases and under the conditions provided for by Union law and national laws and practices". The purpose of this dissertation is to examine these 'cases and conditions provided by Union law'. It aims at analyzing the scope and application of the main legislative instruments which, in one way or another and to a lesser or higher degree, contemplate the right of the worker to be involved. The directive on collective redundancies, the acquired rights directive and the health and safety framework directive were the first in recognizing this right. More recently, the European Works Council, the European Company directive and the general framework for the information and consultation of employees also employ the principle that democracy should not stop at the factory gate or office door.