European Works Council - Essay Example

However its main function is to consult and inform the employees about the organizational change. Also it has high resemblance with the way multinational companies manages their ethical standards. Table of Contents Introduction 4 Discussion 4 Conclusion 6 References 7 Introduction A work council is also a form of organization that represents the employees of several organizations. The principal function of a work council is to look after the welfare of the employees. A work council exists in several forms and names.

Especially in European countries like Austria, Britain, German, Netherlands, Luxemburg, and Spain work councils have strong presence. However the most commonly used implementations of such bodies took place in Germany. In this German model, labour agreements were made by the union and employer association at the national level, local firms and plants. The councils mainly meet with the employees for the purpose of adjusting local agreements and local circumstances. There is a representation from the member countries to the works councils.

In general the members of work councils get elected for a period of four years. There are a number of works councils are present in Europe. Some of them are ABN-Amro European Staff Council, ACNielsen European Works Council, Abbott European Employee Forum, Cadbury Schweppes Confectionery Stream Eur.Empl.Inf.& Cons.Forum, Aer Lingus European Central Representative Council, Arkema European Works Council - negotiations ongoing, Bord na Mona European Forum for Information and Consultation, Agco Corporation European Works Council and Alcatel-Lucent European Committee for Information and Dialogue among many others (Ewcdb, n.d.).

However European Works Councils (EWS) is one of the more noteworthy works councils of the European Union. Towards the unprecedented growth of European Works Councils information technology played a crucial role (Whittall, Knudsen and Huijgen, 2009, pp.167-185). The implementation of the dictate on the formation of European Works Councils in order to notify the employees about the organizational decisions can be portrayed as one of the significant decision of European Union in the field of social policy.

It has also opened the pathway towards the materialization of EU level and transnational industrial relations. There were political barriers for more than twenty years on the workers participation in MNCs. However it changed with the inception of European Workers Council directive. With its inception the idea of harmonization departed, and it moved towards the Dutch model of employee participation (Muller and Platzer, 2003, p.58). Discussion What are European Works Councils? European Works Councils are the bodies that represent the European employees of an organization.

With the help of European Works Council employees are consulted and informed by the management of an organization. The communications and consultations are basically for the purpose of important business decisions that can impact the working conditions of the employees. European Works Councils play a very important role regarding the industrial relations in Europe. It represented the first legitimately European institution at the enterprise level. During the mid half of 1994 a directive regarding the formation of European Works Councils (EWC) was passed by the Council of the European Union.

European works councils also plays an important role in