Objectives

Guarantee & enforcement

Workers’ rights to information and consultation must be fully enforced before any management decisions that have consequences on employment or working conditions are taken. Unions and workers’ representatives must have access to expertise to discuss possible alternatives to management’s plans. Meaningful consultation with management aim at avoiding and mitigating adverse consequences such as redundancies. It is equally important to ensure the full involvement of workers' board-level representatives in discussions and decisions on restructurings.

Improve legislation

Evidence shows that workers' rights to information consultation & participation are not enforced. There are too many loopholes of the current legal framework: EWCs are not consulted when needed, information & consultation rights of national works councils are not respected, and the German co-determination system is under threat because of European shell companies.

These are just a few examples that show that we need improvements to the legal framework on workers’ information, consultation. The European trade union movement is actively pushing for a revision of the EWC Directive and a new horizontal framework on information, consultation and participation for European company forms and for companies making use of EU company law instruments enabling company mobility.

Working together

The Democracy at Work strategy aims at increasing trade union efforts, strengthening the coordination and mobilising affiliates and workers’ representatives. Check out our news section on recent developments.

Awareness raising

The ETUC wants to increase the awareness of the importance of information, consultation and participation rights, in particular in restructuring processes. Whether it's through online communication, on a conference panel or loud with a megaphone on the street, the ETUC holds up the principles of Democracy at Work.