Employee participation in the management of the company and the economy
Ramón Górriz Vitalla
President of the 1st of May Foundation
Since the beginning of the workers’ movement, employees have been committed to contesting the management of power in companies and making progress in participating in managing the production process in workplaces.
The struggle for trade union participation in the management of the economy and the workplaces is an indispensable trade union option.
The dispute over the organisation of work and production, the right to choose the site where the new factory will be set up, the industrial project, the professional classification, the type of products to be manufactured, the role of supervisors and their choice, the volume of employment, the distribution of working time, health all these demands lead to one and only one conclusion: labour does not accept the logic of capital, which is the logic of profit. Workers try to organise work based on other principles based on dignity and solidarity. And this demand for participation also occurs in the field of public employment. The trade union deals with the organisation and functioning of public administrations and, therefore, employment and working conditions and their effects on the quality of the various public services.
The achievement of trade union participation is a trade union achievement, provided that it is clear that it is not the last and definitive one, that the rights of information and consultation, of participation, must serve to take part in the strategic decisions of companies, to gain supremacy, to increase trade union legitimacy and in this sense, participation is nothing more than a commitment that depends permanently on the correlation of forces.
The participation of workers in company boards of directors has been a step forward, with some positive practices and some less so, but it also has its limits.
Plant councils came into being in the early 1950s in Germany as bodies set up by the state to reduce council democracy. Since their creation, they have had an ambiguous character: on the one hand, they are bodies for the collective representation of workers’ interests. On the other hand, they are committed to the “common good” of the company and workers and should contribute to social peace at the workplace. The conflict between capital and labour is eclipsed.
From a trade union perspective, the law meant the marginalisation of trade unions in companies, the reduction of workers’ representation in supervisory boards, abandoning the previous parity model, and excluding the public sector from normalised labour relations with the right to strike and collective bargaining.
The right to strike was severely restricted as an exclusive right of trade unions for economic demands. During the term of the collective agreement, the obligation of labour peace applies.
It is sometimes said that the German industrial relations system is the model for a socially regulated market economy.
In my view, nothing could be further from the truth. The German co-determination law of 1976 did not satisfy the trade unions because of the concessions to employers and conservative forces.
Even so, German works councils have rights of information on any company decision, rights of consultation on work organisation, rights of co-determination (the employer cannot act without the council’s consent) on working time, wage structure, health and safety and collective redundancy plans, which, if used properly, are levers for advancing workers’ organisation in the trade unions.
In addition, the works council, which appoints and dismisses the board of directors and supervises the company’s management, has a parity composition. However, contrary to trade union criteria, the law reserves posts for technicians and managers. The chairman of the supervisory board is elected by the shareholders’ representatives and has a casting vote in a tie.
It is worth highlighting the difference between the German productive fabric and the productive Spanish fabric.
The German industrial relations model recognises labour representation on the supervisory board in companies with more than 2,000 employees, which is a major drawback when transferring this framework of relations beyond large companies.
There is no doubt that this trade union involvement has contributed to changing authoritarian models of human resources management to more participatory and transparent ones, based on a new culture of dialogue and negotiation, while also reinforcing the legitimacy and effectiveness of trade union intervention, provided that the “moral” identification of workers’ representatives with the interests of companies has been avoided.
The European directive 2001/86/EC was an important step in regulating trade union participation in companies. However, its translation into national regulations and its subsequent application have presented serious shortcomings, as has occurred in Spain with Law 31/2006.
Today in Spain, the current regulatory framework only recognises information rights for collective bargaining in the company. The only regulatory basis for the right to information linked to collective bargaining beyond the company is found in Art. 7.2a of Recommendation 163 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
For participation to be a real tool for increasing the correlation of forces in the workplace, it is important to analyse the concepts of collaboration, co-determination and co-determination, and to see whether their meaning does not hide more than a tool for developing the corporatism of competitiveness and is an instrument for promoting flexibility and efficiency with the initiative of the workers.
There is a big difference between co-determination as it is enshrined in German law and genuine trade union participation. The trade union is not an integral part of the way the system works. The integration of the trade union into the system may necessarily imply the degeneration of the organisation’s function for the defence of workers’ interests or its conversion into an instrument of conciliation of interests. Trade union representatives on participation commissions, boards of directors and supervisory committees cannot be involved in job destruction measures in the interests of company rationalisation.
Trade union participation in the management of the company, in each case, must assess whether its action serves to legitimise and strengthen trade union intervention and membership or, on the contrary, accompanies the directives of capital.
In my opinion, trade union participation must be achieved at all strategic levels (industrial plans, investments, results, work organisation, relocations, the volume of employment, etc.).
In the workplace and the territory, collective bargaining in the sector is the way to extend rights.
I end by paraphrasing a reflection by Umberto Romagnoli, an Italian scholar, a connoisseur of the trade union movement and an intellectual who has enriched legal and trade union culture:
“The world of work is an uncomfortable path; it endures the terrible contradiction of having to speak of democracy in spaces such as the factory, the workplace or the workshop, which constitute impassable cells of authoritarianism that, at best, have been softened in such a way as to have whitened the face of corporate power.
The enterprise is at best republican, but it can never be democratic, because while the government-opposition dialectic presupposes alternation, in the workplace the reversal of roles is inadmissible”.
Just as it is absurd to think that democracy can eliminate power relations in the political sphere, it is also absurd to think that democracy in business can prevent the existence of power relations and the emergence of elites, hierarchies and exclusions in decision-making.
010 October 2021
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionPay for work: increasing cases of labour exploitation in Europe
SOHAIB NADI
Outside Spain, nearly 1 million Spanish live abroad in other European countries, more than 60% of whom are of working age (16-64 years old).
One of the main causes of this migratory phenomenon is due to the high rate of unemployment in Spain, one of the highest in the European Union. In the Netherlands, for example, the unemployment rate is barely 4%. According to the National Statistics Institute, this contrast explains why more than 1,000 Spaniards have moved to the Netherlands in the last year.
However, far from achieving this stable situation, many young people have denounced the adversities they have to face after being hired in the Netherlands. Negative pay slips, unfair dismissals, misleading contracts, occupational hazards are some of the irregularities that 500 workers have reported to the Spanish Embassy in the Benelux.
Temporary employment agencies contribute to labour exploitation
Employers in the Netherlands see temporary employment agencies as an opportunity to hire cheap labour without breaking the law. The minimum wage in the Netherlands is 8.96 euros per hour, but the contracts include a number of additional benefits (health insurance, accommodation, transport) that substantially reduce the wage bill. This, added to the fact that working hours are flexible, i.e. the employee only comes to work when the company requires it, means that workers do not reach the minimum number of hours necessary to survive or even that the payroll is negative, which is the same as paying to work.
Victims of social dumping and the phenomenon of the Polish plumber
The Bolkestein Directive, which came into force in 2009, allows EU citizens to take up residence in any of the 28 member states. However, employers take advantage of the arrival of workers from other countries, usually where labour is cheaper, to increase profits by exploiting their employees. This phenomenon, known as the Polish plumber phenomenon, is a common term used by European populists to accuse foreigners of stealing work from nationals. But the reality is different: companies take advantage of the desperation of many immigrants to offer ‘junk contracts’.
Labour exploitation is one of the Eurogroup’s biggest headaches; in Portugal or Belgium, it is the main form of human trafficking, even more so than sexual exploitation. The solution that the European Parliament, together with the Commission, is trying to promote is the creation of a European Labour Authority capable of preventing labour abuses and fraud in collaboration with the competent local authorities.
Spain is no stranger to this scourge either. Although the Ministry of the Interior maintains that the figures for labour exploitation are low, the Council of Europe’s Group of Experts against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA), whose estimates claim that the number of victims of slavery in Spain (whether sexual or labour) is much higher, has questioned the report presented.
009 September 2021
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionWorks councils… defence or defencelessness
Any law or regulation should be constituted with the aim of including, in addition to the precise and concrete functioning of what it intends to legislate, the guidelines that allow us to preserve the fundamental rights and obligations established in the rest of the laws that govern us. In other words, a law, under the fact of complying with it, cannot oblige us to fail to comply with another.
In principle, this imprecise and homemade definition is something that we do not naturally question. And we may even be convinced that these objectives are the ones that are always taken into account when making a law, rule or regulation.
Thus, for example, the Law of the Statute of Workers (Spain) establishes the right of workers to participate in their company through certain representative bodies, mainly the staff delegates and works councils. It also establishes their competences, the way they are elected, their amount, etc.
Without going into great detail, and as I am sure everyone knows, workers’ representatives are elected every four years by voting from lists of candidates proposed by the trade unions.
Once elected, and this is a very important factor, throughout their term of office, these representatives have the power to sign and negotiate with the company whatever they want, without the need or formal obligation to consult the workers, as their election implies a delegation of worker representation to them.
It should also be said that both the electors and those elected must be employees of the company, meeting only the minimum requirements of age and length of service in the company.
In general, nobody pays much attention to their representatives or works council in a company if everything is going well. This is like what happens with insurance: better to spend the premium money but never have to use it than not have it at all. A strange contradiction perhaps, but indisputable in its practical essence. But as with insurance, when you have to use it, there are often problems and surprises.
Being a member of the works council has disadvantages because of its obligations and advantages because of its rights, or as the law says, because of the guarantees required to protect the development of its activity in defence of workers’ interests.
On the one hand, they cannot be dismissed during the four years of their mandate or the following one. Nor can they be included in any redundancy programme. Unlike the rest of the workers, they also have the right to reply to any labour sanction imposed on them. They have a certain number of free hours per month without justification for their work activity and preference in the company’s training programme.
For the company, their existence also has advantages. The first and reciprocal to that of the workers is to have a specific and defined body for dialogue and decision-making. But no one is unaware that it is undoubtedly much easier to “kidnap” the will of 10 members of a works council than that of its 8,000 representatives, to give an example. And therein lies the problem.
Power corrupts, and there is no need to spend dozens of lines here to corroborate this. But, unfortunately, it is a circumstance that is almost consubstantial to the human being and tends to appear as temptation as soon as we add 1 to the individual’s loneliness. And trade union activity is not exempt from these temptations. Trade unions in this country (Spain) move a lot of money, both directly and indirectly. In 2011 alone, they received 18.3 million euros in direct subsidies from the Ministry of Labour, in addition to other income, mainly from the training courses and social and labour insertion programmes they developed (175 million euros in 2010).
And within a company? Well, let everyone draw on their memory and experience and assess what kind of temptations, favours and advantages their trade union representatives are subjected to and draw conclusions. How many have turned them down, and how many have not.
The worst thing is that at that point, workers in practice can do nothing to demand the highest quality of union representation from their union representatives, just as nothing can be done, to take the example of insurance, to change the conditions of our ill-fated insurance when the claim has already occurred.
We conclude that the system is perverse, and while pursuing healthy and equitable preservation of justice and workers’ rights, once again, human “idiosyncrasy” has taken care to make the most of it for the benefit of itself and a few.
The delegation of workers’ rights, for certain causes and processes of labour disputes, should be able to fall to professionals, we insist, to professionals who are competent and independent in this defence and, above all, completely alien to any possibility of acquiring debts and special favours on the part of the company. Thus, in the negotiation of an ERE, people without a “rucksack” who, among other things, will not take away your job but will not keep it either.
In the same way that when a worker or the company itself is faced with a relevant process that affects their rights, they hire the best quality legal services they can afford, outside the scope of their company in the second case and those they can access in the first case.
Taking CX’s ERE as an example, have they not hired a prestigious law firm as advisors instead of their legal professionals? Does the FROB itself not hire external consultants and advisors for its reports, instead of doing so with its technicians, which it has, and of indisputable quality?
The lives of 2,453 people cannot be left in the hands of 13 people, without the latter having the necessary mechanisms to be able to moderate and express their participation and agreement in the decisions of these few, who do not even have the right to approve the representativeness of those who will sit at a negotiating table, with the excuse of a simple question of union discipline or due obedience for four years.
In civil society, one person can grant powers of attorney to another. Still, just as freely and voluntarily as he or she grants them, he or she can revoke them and render them ineffective.
The problem is not a new one, but just another variant, with the same effects and implications and causes, as the often controversial and discussed Spanish electoral system and its closed lists.
We know that the solution is not simple and that the purpose of raising it should not be considered as a proposal for a grotesque discussion on what we believe to be the privatisation of the trade union function, far from it. But there are certain situations, frequent and in everyone’s memory, which, due to their critical nature in the labour and personal future of workers, the role of trade union representatives is not up to the task in terms of credibility or prestige, nor does it respond to the real needs or the will of the workers.
Source: http://dimesecretillos.blogspot.com/2013/09/comites-de-empresadefensa-o-indefension.html
008 September 2021
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionWhy is the existence of a European Works Council important for the enforcement of workers’ rights?
Workers have duties as well as rights. They are becoming increasingly aware of the latter, hence the importance of having workers’ representatives in companies. There are different forms of representation, and one of them is the works council. The way the world of work is going, all workers like to have someone in the company who looks out for them.
Do you consider the existence of works councils to be important?
The work of workers’ representatives is much more important than many people think. Having or not having these representatives has an impact on the situation of the workers in the companies. For example, if a worker has a complaint against the company for something that is not legal or fair, he/she should tell the committee’s representatives, and they are the ones who will talk to the company. Moreover, by law, the company has to listen to them. When faced with a problem, can a worker go to the personnel department to solve it? The answer is no. First of all, because they don’t listen to you, they don’t take you into account, and they won’t respond to your demands. So the only way for an employee to solve his or her problems is to go to the works council. The fact that the committee raises whatever it is always obliges the employer to respond. Whether that response is the right one is another matter. Where there is trade union representation, workers have a minimum of coverage and guarantees that are fulfilled, but where there is no representation, they are defenceless.
007 August 2021
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionFour questions about works councils
They represent the workers and defend their rights in front of the company. They are only compulsory when the workforce exceeds 1,000 employees, although, with 50 employees, they are advisable.
They represent the workers and defend their rights before the company. They are only compulsory when the workforce has more than 1,000 employees, although, with 50 employees, they are already advisable.
1. What is the purpose of a works council, what are its functions and what do they regulate?
According to article 63 of the Workers’ Statute (ET), a works council is the representative and collegiate body of the workers as a whole in the company. Its raison d’être is to defend the interests of the staff.
It is, in short, the form of worker participation in the company’s business activity and decision-making, since the committee “has the right to be informed and consulted by the employer on those issues that may affect the workers”.
It also has the power to take administrative or legal action within limits set by the statute.
2. Do all companies have a committee of workers’ representatives? What does it depend on?
No, nor are they obliged to have one, except for companies with more than 1,000 employees, following European regulations, although it is usual and advisable for companies with more than 50 employees.
According to a scale set out in Article 66 of the Workers’ Statute, the number of works council members varies according to the number of employees. Thus, for example, from 50 to 100 employees, five members; from 101 to 250, 9; from 251 to 500, 13; from 501 to 750, 17; from 750 to 1,000, 21; and from 1,000 employees onwards, 21 plus 2 for every 1,000 up to a maximum of 75.
3. There will be committee elections in my company, how are they formed, and who elects them?
Elections for committee members can be held on a general or partial basis. However, when they are for the renewal of representation at the end of the term of office, they can only be held after three months have elapsed.
Partial elections can also take place in the event of resignations, revocations or adjustments of representation due to an increase in the number of employees. According to Article 69 of the ET, “staff delegates and works council members shall be elected by all workers by personal, direct, free and secret ballot”.
All company workers may elect them over 16 years of age and at least one month’s seniority. Workers over 18 years of age and with at least six months’ seniority shall be eligible for election, unless another term is agreed in the collective agreement, with a minimum limit of three months’ seniority”.
In the election for personnel delegates (in companies with less than 50 workers), each worker may vote for a maximum number of candidates equivalent to the number of posts to be filled. Those who obtain the highest number of votes shall be elected. In the event of a tie, the longest-serving employee shall be elected.
4. I have been asked to be a member of a works council. What obligations and benefits, if any, do I have?
Works council members have certain guarantees as workers. They are set out in Article 68 of the Workers’ Statute.
These include the priority of permanence in the company over other workers in the event of suspension or termination for technological or economic reasons; not being dismissed or punished during the exercise of their functions or within one year of the expiry of their mandate.
They also have a credit of paid hours per month for the exercise of their representative functions.
006 August 2021
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionEuropean trade union federations update joint recommendations for European Works Council meetings
European trade union federations issued practical recommendations for members of special negotiating groups, European Works Councils and European Works Councils of European companies in March 2020, when the covid-19 outbreak hit Europe.
The recommendations were intended to provide guidance on how to anticipate and manage the impact of the covid-19 crisis on employment and companies, adapting the functioning of SNBs, EWCs and EC-SEs to these extraordinary circumstances.
Six months later, it has become clear that these extraordinary circumstances persist and that social distancing and travel restrictions continue to prevent expensive meetings. And that the rights to information, consultation and participation remain more relevant than ever. That is why European trade union federations have updated the recommendations made in March on the format of meetings because democracy does not stop because of the covid-19 crisis.
005 July 2021
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionEmployee participation in the company
María Escat Cortés
Employee participation must be understood from two points of view:
But what are the basics of participatory management?
The first thing to note is that participation is closely related to the professional, collective and technical opportunities that the environment offers.
Effectiveness is measured in terms of the quality of the intermediaries, the wealth of information processed, the operational value of the decisions taken and their practical application. It cannot always be translated in terms of direct productivity.
People decide to take part in a joint project when they:
When the autonomy and participation of employees decreases, it means that the influence they have gained is not what they expected. In other words, participation fails when one wants to impose all methods and processes from above.
An appropriate balance must be maintained between mobilisation to encourage participation and the relaxation of participation.
It is also important to consider the influence of new technologies on participation:
they also contribute to the autonomy of employees while developing interdependence within the organisation. Computerisation and bureaucracy facilitate networking. Other technologies increase the speed of responses to the environment and the need for interdepartmental consultation and cooperation.
004 July 2021
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionCOVID-19: the European Committee of the Regions will launch a platform to support local and regional communities across Europe
The new information exchange platform will help share needs and solutions to the virus, foster mutual support and act as a mechanism to test whether EU measures are realistic at the local and regional level. The CoR will also provide local communities with practical information on EU support actions, in particular financial measures.
The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) has drawn up an action plan to support and assist local and regional authorities in the fight against the coronavirus. The five-point plan includes the launch of an information exchange and mutual support platform for local and regional leaders to share their needs and proposals in the face of the pandemic. The new platform will also allow CoR members to give feedback on EU actions and their accommodation in the different territories. In addition, the CoR will provide regular and practical information on EU measures, particularly on economic and financial support.
The Conference of Presidents of the European Committee of the Regions* has endorsed an action plan to tackle the coronavirus, calling on the EU institutions to support local leaders through an EU Health Emergency Mechanism, inter alia to coordinate the distribution of essential medical equipment across the EU.
To address the population’s health, social and economic needs, local and regional leaders need to protect their economies. The action plan calls for financial support for local businesses and individuals facing unemployment and EU support for the tailor-made recovery strategies that many EU regions are currently developing to stabilise their economies.
Commenting on adopting the action plan, European Committee of the Regions President Apostolos Tzitzikostas said: “Our CoR members and all EU regional and local leaders are making extraordinary efforts in the fight against the pandemic. In these difficult times, we must be united and act responsibly. Many presidents of regions and mayors have asked me to create a platform for exchange, allowing CoR members and EU regional and local leaders to share their needs, observations and ideas and develop common solutions. The action plan we have just adopted will also allow us to address the health needs of local communities better and address the social and economic aspects of the pandemic and its impact on local and regional authorities.
The CoR is the interface and point of reference between the European Union and its local and regional governments in its institutional role. In the current crisis, it is ready to assist, inform, collaborate with and represent regions and cities across Europe.
Specifically, in operational terms, the CoR’s action plan aims to:
These interventions and measures will be accompanied by specific communication initiatives to inform what the EU is doing to assist and support local communities in their fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
* The Conference of Presidents of the European Committee of the Regions is composed of:
Contact:
David Crous
Tel. +32 (0)470 88 10 37
david.crous@cor.europa.eu
003 June 2021
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionEmployee participation in the company
María Escat Cortés
Employee participation must be understood from two points of view:
But what are the basics of participatory management?
The first thing to note is that participation is closely related to the professional, collaborative and technical opportunities that the environment offers.
Effectiveness is measured in terms of the quality of the intermediaries, the wealth of information processed, the operational value of the decisions taken and their practical application. It cannot always be translated in terms of direct productivity.
People decide to take part in a joint project when they:
When the autonomy and participation of employees decreases, it means that the influence they have gained is not what they expected. In other words, participation fails when one wants to impose all methods and processes from above.
An appropriate balance must be maintained between mobilisation to encourage participation and the relaxation of participation.
It is also important to consider the influence of new technologies on participation:
002 June 2021
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionEmployee participation in the management of the company and the economy
Ramón Górriz Vitalla
President of the 1st of May Foundation
Since the beginning of the workers’ movement, employees have been committed to contesting the management of power in companies and making progress in participating in managing the production process in workplaces.
The struggle for trade union participation in the management of the economy and the workplaces is an indispensable trade union option.
The dispute over the organisation of work and production, the right to choose the site where the new factory will be set up, the industrial project, the professional classification, the type of products to be manufactured, the role of supervisors and their choice, the volume of employment, the distribution of working time, health all these demands lead to one and only one conclusion: labour does not accept the logic of capital, which is the logic of profit. Workers try to organise work based on other principles based on dignity and solidarity. And this demand for participation also occurs in the field of public employment. The trade union deals with the organisation and functioning of public administrations and, therefore, employment and working conditions and their effects on the quality of the various public services.
The achievement of trade union participation is a trade union achievement, provided that it is clear that it is not the last and definitive one, that the rights of information and consultation, of participation, must serve to take part in the strategic decisions of companies, to gain supremacy, to increase trade union legitimacy and in this sense, participation is nothing more than a commitment that depends permanently on the correlation of forces.
The participation of workers in company boards of directors has been a step forward, with some positive practices and some less so, but it also has its limits.
Plant councils came into being in the early 1950s in Germany as bodies set up by the state to reduce council democracy. Since their creation, they have had an ambiguous character: on the one hand, they are bodies for the collective representation of workers’ interests. On the other hand, they are committed to the “common good” of the company and workers and should contribute to social peace at the workplace. The conflict between capital and labour is eclipsed.
From a trade union perspective, the law meant the marginalisation of trade unions in companies, the reduction of workers’ representation in supervisory boards, abandoning the previous parity model, and excluding the public sector from normalised labour relations with the right to strike and collective bargaining.
The right to strike was severely restricted as an exclusive right of trade unions for economic demands. During the term of the collective agreement, the obligation of labour peace applies.
It is sometimes said that the German industrial relations system is the model for a socially regulated market economy.
In my view, nothing could be further from the truth. The German co-determination law of 1976 did not satisfy the trade unions because of the concessions to employers and conservative forces.
Even so, German works councils have rights of information on any company decision, rights of consultation on work organisation, rights of co-determination (the employer cannot act without the council’s consent) on working time, wage structure, health and safety and collective redundancy plans, which, if used properly, are levers for advancing workers’ organisation in the trade unions.
In addition, the works council, which appoints and dismisses the board of directors and supervises the company’s management, has a parity composition. However, contrary to trade union criteria, the law reserves posts for technicians and managers. The chairman of the supervisory board is elected by the shareholders’ representatives and has a casting vote in a tie.
It is worth highlighting the difference between the German productive fabric and the productive Spanish fabric.
The German industrial relations model recognises labour representation on the supervisory board in companies with more than 2,000 employees, which is a major drawback when transferring this framework of relations beyond large companies.
There is no doubt that this trade union involvement has contributed to changing authoritarian models of human resources management to more participatory and transparent ones, based on a new culture of dialogue and negotiation, while also reinforcing the legitimacy and effectiveness of trade union intervention, provided that the “moral” identification of workers’ representatives with the interests of companies has been avoided.
The European directive 2001/86/EC was an important step in regulating trade union participation in companies. However, its translation into national regulations and its subsequent application have presented serious shortcomings, as has occurred in Spain with Law 31/2006.
Today in Spain, the current regulatory framework only recognises information rights for collective bargaining in the company. The only regulatory basis for the right to information linked to collective bargaining beyond the company is found in Art. 7.2a of Recommendation 163 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
For participation to be a real tool for increasing the correlation of forces in the workplace, it is important to analyse the concepts of collaboration, co-determination and co-determination, and to see whether their meaning does not hide more than a tool for developing the corporatism of competitiveness and is an instrument for promoting flexibility and efficiency with the initiative of the workers.
There is a big difference between co-determination as it is enshrined in German law and genuine trade union participation. The trade union is not an integral part of the way the system works. The integration of the trade union into the system may necessarily imply the degeneration of the organisation’s function for the defence of workers’ interests or its conversion into an instrument of conciliation of interests. Trade union representatives on participation commissions, boards of directors and supervisory committees cannot be involved in job destruction measures in the interests of company rationalisation.
Trade union participation in the management of the company, in each case, must assess whether its action serves to legitimise and strengthen trade union intervention and membership or, on the contrary, accompanies the directives of capital.
In my opinion, trade union participation must be achieved at all strategic levels (industrial plans, investments, results, work organisation, relocations, the volume of employment, etc.).
In the workplace and the territory, collective bargaining in the sector is the way to extend rights.
I end by paraphrasing a reflection by Umberto Romagnoli, an Italian scholar, a connoisseur of the trade union movement and an intellectual who has enriched legal and trade union culture:
“The world of work is an uncomfortable path; it endures the terrible contradiction of having to speak of democracy in spaces such as the factory, the workplace or the workshop, which constitute impassable cells of authoritarianism that, at best, have been softened in such a way as to have whitened the face of corporate power.
The enterprise is at best republican, but it can never be democratic, because while the government-opposition dialectic presupposes alternation, in the workplace the reversal of roles is inadmissible”.
Just as it is absurd to think that democracy can eliminate power relations in the political sphere, it is also absurd to think that democracy in business can prevent the existence of power relations and the emergence of elites, hierarchies and exclusions in decision-making.
001 May 2021
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Trade Unions TransitionCOVID-19 and Workers’ Organizations: Interview with Sharan Burrow
What should be the key policy measures to relaunch the Global economy affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic? Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) shares her views on the needs and expectations from the trade union movement on how to address the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. Ms Burrow calls also for more solidarity and the need to strengthen Multilateralism.
News | 4 May 2020
Contact: Mamadou Kaba SOUARE, souare@ilo.org
What is your evaluation about the COVID-19 crisis, and the consequences for workers and their organizations across the Globe?
Covid-19 will be remembered as the virus that stopped the world. We are living through a period that can only be described as the greatest act of solidarity in history, as people give up civic freedoms to save lives. And while we all agree that managing the health crisis is the overwhelming priority, the social and economic consequences are and will be dramatic in an already troubled world.
The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on people’s health but also on economies, as shutdowns, confinement and other measures now cover most of the world’s population.
On May I we salute the workers in health, care and other frontline sectors whose work is essential to saving lives and providing vital products and services and who selflessly put their own health at risk.
However, we share the ILOs assessment of the risk of around 300 million jobs or the equivalent in full time hours being lost in the second quarter of 2020. In addition, some 250 million people could face starvation and Oxfam reports that 500,000 million people could be thrown back into poverty.
In your opinion what have to be the immediate responses to the epidemic to protect the health and livelihoods of workers?
Many of the world’s governments have responded to this first phase of this crisis and we applaud those governments that are making full use of social dialogue to tackle the crisis and secure wages and income support for their people. The provision of sick pay, wage guarantees, income support for workers of platform business, freelancers and other forms of non-standard work are also crucial.
But we ask them to do more. As we witness the plight of workers in poorer countries fired or abandoned due to collapsing supply chains or day labourers and workers in the informal economy, we call for international support.
Governments need to act to deliver urgent social protection for health and income support. It is almost 10 years since the UN endorsed global protection floors for the poorest of countries after the Bachelet report. It was in 2015 this was written into the SDGs with the promise of Goal 1.3. Now it is time to deliver.
Compared to around $10 trillion being spent on this crisis $35 billion would fund 5 years of social protection for the 28 poorest countries and build both a basic economy and resilience against the next crisis. Every dollar after that would assist coverage in other countries. If we can’t exercise global solidarity and share resources now for health and income support now, then when?
And of course we condemn those governments that refuse to cooperate with unions at home or with other countries internationally as well as those who deny the reality of the pandemic, or allow violence and human rights abuses at enormous cost to their own people. The ITUC and it members will stand in solidarity against these attacks.
Furthermore, what are the important policy measures in the medium term to ensure that the impact of the economic crisis on workers around the globe is mitigated?
The world already faces a convergence of crises.
We have massive inequality driving an age of anger with civil unrest and a distrust in democracy that was already recognised as a major risk to economies;
The climate emergency is and will remain an imperative for action to save human beings from extinction;
Progress on every indicator has stalled for women and violence against women remains largely unchecked;
Racism and xenophobia are on the rise as a tool of fear on which far-right politics are built;
We are facing the choices associated with the best and worst impacts of technology; and
Multilateralism is in crisis as people lose trust in globalisation.
And now we have Covid-19.
As we look to recovery and building resilience against future crisis events no one can be left behind this time. Massive investment in public health and in care is vital to ensure that all have access and that full respect for the rights of all workers is ensured.
Thus re-launching of the global economy must ensure robust public services with three other critical objectives:
JOBS: Millions of jobs are being destroyed. Full employment must be the goal, with decent work for all, healthy and safe conditions, an end to precarious work and formalisation of informal work.
INCOMES: The wage share of the global economy has been falling for decades and risks plummeting with this crisis. Minimum living wages must be in place everywhere, the right to collective bargaining has to be ensured for all workers and the gender pay gap must be closed.
SOCIAL PROTECTION: Billions of people have been left without social protection and are at grave risk from the devastating health and the economic effects of this crisis. Now is the time for global cooperation to fund social protection for all. The world cannot turn its back on those most in need now or in reconstruction of an inclusive and resilient future.
This is why the ITUC is calling for a New Social Contract – the ILO Centenary Declaration is a solid foundation for this.
What is your advice for workers’ organizations in engaging/negotiating with employers and governments to influence policy making and best protect workers around the world?
We need a new social contract and people and the planet must be the foundations for the future. Without social dialogue, we will not dissipate the age of anger driven by inequality and set to be multiplied by this crisis that has exposed the fragility of an unequal world.
The antidote to this crisis is in the solidarity that is the lifeblood of trade unions, throughout history and today. All countries must work together to overcome the initial COVID-19 waves and to prepare for the future. Planning for and investing in a more equal world where we can build jobs on a living planet is the only pathway. Trade unions will fight for just that.
Finally, how can the role of Multilateralism, which is based on solidarity and global coordination, be enhanced to combat the crisis and beyond?
Multilateralism is in crisis. The ambition of global leaders after two world wars and the Great Depression of last century was a social floor with a global set of rules and international institutions to ensure development. The corporate greed of hyper globalization since the 1980s has distorted the vision of those leaders and their legacy. The impacts of this crisis have brutally exposed the failings of the model of globalisation, which has been imposed on working women and men. Public health systems have been debilitated by austerity and the erosion of workers’ rights has left untold millions of workers exposed. Women, migrant workers, ethnic minorities and others who face discrimination are bearing a particularly heavy burden.
This must change. Multilateralism must be reformed to ensure that people and the planet come first, that democratic rights sit at the heart of a new social contract and that responsible business conduct is assured by requiring a social license to operate with mandated due diligence.
We must change the rules to build a just future for all.
Source: https://www.ilo.org/actrav/media-center/news/WCMS_743445/lang–es/index.htm