The European Union begins final negotiations this month on amendments to the rules governing European Works Councils (EWC).

The amendments will give EWCs more power to obtain information about – and comment on – major changes such as mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, restructuring and redundancies.

They also include:

• Clearer rules on confidentiality. Companies will have to be clearer about why some information is confidential and can’t be shared with the EWC.
• Potentially stronger penalties for breaking the rules. Likely to be a key issue for debate, as the European Council, Commission and Parliament all have differing opinions on sanction levels.
• Higher costs for companies. Companies will have to pay more towards the set-up and running of EWCs
• More gender balance. Companies will be encouraged to have equal numbers of men and women on EWCs.
• Updating old agreements. The current Directive doesn’t apply to approximately 350 EWCs set up before 1994 – under the new proposals, they’d no longer be exempted.

If you’d like to know more, I provide full project management support for EWC meetings, including interpreting services in all European languages.