On 27 November 2018, the Dutch court rejected the claim made by the Alcoa EWC that the company had to first conclude consultation procedures with the EWC before concluding consultations proceedings with Spanish works council. This procedure was initiated with the Spanish employee representatives’ body on 17 October 2018 in relation to the possible closure of the Avilés and La Coruña sites. The Spanish trade unions had been hoping to secure a suspension of the information and consultation procedure surrounding the social plan.
According to the court’s decision, no EWC right to priority information and consultation stems from the Dutch collective redundancy legislation (Wet melding collectief ontslag, WMCO), the Alcoa EWC agreement (see Article 3), or from Directive 2009/38/EC (see recital 37 in the preamble). The Dutch court held that consultation could take place simultaneously with the EWC and with the appropriate bodies at national level given the differences in scope in terms of the issues that the two bodies...
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