Unions set strict terms for worker consultation talks

Date: 23/07/1998

By Simon Coss

ABORTED talks on EU-wide worker consultation will only resume if employers accept that staff have the right to a say in their firms' restructuring, according to the leader of Europe's trade unions.

Emilio Gabaglio, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), insists two conditions must be met if the talks which broke down recently with employers' federation UNICE are to be restarted.

He says employers must first agree to open "genuine" negotiations soon and not use the excuse of preparing for talks as a delaying tactic.

Secondly, they must accept the principle that workers have a fundamental right to be informed and consulted about major changes planned by their employers.

"We would negotiate if these conditions were fulfilled," he said. "I would like to give negotiations a chance, but it is really up to them."

Last year, the European Commission invited the ETUC, UNICE and the Union's third 'social partner', the public sector employers' organisation CEEP, to draw up draft rules on "information and consultation of workers in national companies".

Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn decided such rules were needed to accompany existing EU legislation covering multinationals, following the shock decision of French car-maker Renault to close its assembly plant in Vilvoorde, Belgium.

Gabaglio argues that, because the information and consultation issue has now been discussed for over a year, UNICE will not need much preparation time.

In March, UNICE said it did not want to take up Flynn's invitation as it had been unable to obtain the necessary mandate from its national member organisations. This prompted Flynn to begin working on an agreement to be imposed on the three sides.

However, at a bilateral meeting earlier this month, newly appointed UNICE president Georges Jacobs asked Flynn for a final chance to talk to his members and the Commissioner agreed to delay publishing his plans until the end of September.

But although it has asked for more time, UNICE is still playing its cards close to its chest.

The organisation's secretary general Dirk Hudig insists it is too early to say whether UNICE will even want to negotiate, let alone agree to pre-conditions. "The position is the same at the moment," he said, referring to the organisation's March decision.

Observers are divided over the reason for the apparent softening of UNICE's stance.

The official version is that the new leadership at the employers' federation (Jacobs was appointed after the March decision, and Hudig took over as secretary general at the beginning of May) is more open to talks than its predecessors.

But others suggest that when UNICE got wind of the agreement Flynn was planning to impose on it, the organisation decided it would make more sense to be involved in framing the rules. They claim a draft version of Flynn's plans suggesting that firms employing as few as 20 employees could be covered by the proposed legislation was leaked to reporters last week in an effort to bring UNICE back to the negotiating table.

Gabaglio is adamant that the employers must not be allowed to drag out their internal consultation process beyond the end of September. If they have not decided by then, he says, Flynn must come forward with his plans.