On 22 January 2016, in Oberwaltersdorf, Austria, at the European headquarters of Austro-Canadian group Magna International, a new European works council constitutional assembly was held for the world’s second largest auto parts maker. Central management had allowed the six-month legal period for negotiating an employee representation structure to lapse without progress being made. As a result, and in line with the European Directive 2009/38, a ‘default’ European works council (EWC) is now in place. For the German and Austrian negotiators this in itself is not such a bad thing in a company with an ‘Anglo-Saxon’ tradition and little inclined to co-determination. Indeed, management has agreed to negotiate ex poste with the new EWC on the issues of scope and prerogatives. The new German EWC president Reiner Elgas (IG Metall) and the Austrian negotiator Wolfgang Greif (GPA-djp) agreed to lay out the details of this new body for Planet Labor.
Magna EWC setup details. From its starting point in Canada in 1957 initiated by Austro-Canadian Frank Stronach, Magna International established itself in Austria around thirty years ago before extending its reach throughout Europe. With a deeply rooted Anglo-Saxon entrepreneurial culture Frank Stronach was little inclined towards social dialogue: “At the time his message was totally unambiguous – unions were the enemy that weighed negatively on business. There was even a vote on works councils
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