BACKGROUND
In May 2009, the directive 2009/38/EC (recast directive) on the establishment of a European Works Council or a procedure in Community-scale undertakings and Community-scale groups of undertakings for the purposes of informing and consulting employees was published. The recast directive has been the result of a long consultation process initiated by ETUC, in order to respond to the need for more efficient and effective European Work Councils in practice. Member States have up to 5 June 2011 to transpose the provisions of the recast EWC directive into national law.
The Federation of Industrial Trade Unions (OBES) is a federation unifying 32 trade unions from different industrial sectors all over Greece. Members of OBES are trade unions from major multinational companies such as Athenian Brewery (Heineken), Siemens, Kodac, Lafarge. OBES has been working in the field of information and consultation at European level since 2000, having organized a number of events in the topics of European Work Councils and European Company and having collaborated with other partners, syndicalistic bodies from other European countries. It also provides consulting to EWC members, establishment of new EWC, compilation of proposals and remarks for Greek transposition laws on EWC and European Company. To this end OBES has a long term co-operation with and asks for advice from SDA and ETUC.
The introduction of the recast directive and the new national legislations present opportunities for more effective procedures of creation and operation of European Work Councils. Nevertheless, there is a need for the workers movement to get familiar with the new developments and benefit the most, especially in the particular time of spreading economic crisis.