The establishment of European Works Councils. From information committee to social actor

The establishment of European Works Councils. From information committee to social actor:

This study of the establishment and development of European Works Councils (EWCs) in four European Union countries presents the results of a research project carried out between September 1996 and September 1997. It sets out to anchor a number of qualitative case-studies of EWCs in a systematic, nationally comparative way.

There are four parts to this volume. The first outlines the scope and method of the research. The second outlines the context for the development of EWCs, examining Europeanisation and globalisation, transformation of corporate strategies, the legal context and the establishment and development of EWCs.

The third part describes eight case studies from the metalworking and chemical industries. Each study looks at a parent company with a subsidiary in a different European country. The companies involved are ENI, Hoechst, ICI, Rhone Poulenc, Bull, GKN, Merloni and Schmalbach-Lubeca. The interviews with representatives from the companies were supplemented by interviews with the representatives of national and European employer associations, the European Parliament and EU Commission, together with a Brussels-based management consultancy.

The final part analyses the implications of the case studies, and has further chapters on the prospects for EWCs. The appendices give tables comparing the features of the different EWCs in the case studies and the numbers and types of interviews conducted. A comprehensive bibliography is included.