On 15 April, the French energy producer and provider concluded an agreement on employee involvement in the future European Company (SE), the conversion into which was approved at the shareholders’ meeting on 29 May. In continuing the process of European social dialogue that has grown over the last 20 years, the future SE company European Works Council will give greater involvement to the smaller countries (those employing less than 150 employees) and will also benefit from stronger resources for better communication. The European trade union federations are also involved.

In May 2019, Bolloré, a French transportation, communications and logistics conglomerate announced its intention to shift its headquarters and transform its status to a Societas Europaea (SE), a European legal status facilitating business operations across Europe. In parallel, Bolloré’s financial subsidiaries, Financière de l'Odet and Bolloré Participations, as well as its logistics business division, Bolloré Logistics, will also change over to SE status. In line with the European texts relevant to this new change in status, management had to negotiate an agreement defining the arrangements for employee representative involvement on the leadership bodies for the new SEs. The decision was made to implement a single joint representation structure common for all the SEs. The agreement was signed on 04 October 2019 and also intends for the designation of a representative from this joint SE committee to sit on the Bolloré Group SE board of management.

Faurecia now possess ‘a legal status that is more representative of the Group’s European dimension and that will bolster both its international image and its attractiveness vis-à-vis all of its stakeholders,’ underlined the group’s press statement (04 January 2019) that announced the French automotive parts manufacturer adopted Societas Europaea (SE) status as of 26 December 2018. To enable the SE transformation, Faurecia first concluded an agreement on 22 October 2018 covering worker involvement and its contents closely mirror the text governing its earlier European Works Council.

Six years have passed since FCA (then Fiat) quit the country’s employers’ body Confindustria. The resultant seismic effects on the social landscape sparked a series of structural changes that have weakened both the unions and employers’ bodies alike. The country’s social model has nonetheless not disintegrated and sector agreements continue to cover a significant portion of the country’s workers. However company level agreements have gained momentum and new topics are coming to the fore. In this article two experts give an overview.

Two European companies with a single common personnel representation body. The arrangement to put a single works council in place was chosen in an agreement signed by Christian Dior SE and LVMH SE on 07 July 2014. The works council is a forum for information and its Bureau can, under exceptional and circumstances, which have been precisely laid out, also exercise the right to information and ‘exchange’. Although not recent news Planet Labor is nonetheless putting this online along with a commentary in the context of this being a reference point.

On March 30 management at the French engineering and technology advisory firm signed an agreement with a SNB that puts in place an EWC for the soon to be established SE. This is the third French company since the start of the year to have signed an agreement of this type within the context of transforming to an SE.

On March 26, 2015, OHB, the German space technology company converted its legal structure into a Societas Europaea (SE). The change is in response to the growing Europeanization of its activities. The agreement covering workers’ participation, a prerequisite for being allowed to adopt SE status, has resulted in an SE Works Council being put in place. Even if currently the conditions for workers representation on the supervisory board are not ready, the agreement does contain rules over designating future representatives when these conditions are appropriate.

On April 10 the French software company specializing in 3D software design together with an expressly designated SNB signed an agreement on employee involvement in the future SE. The highly detailed agreement puts a Committee of the European Company (CEC) in place and is the Group’s first transnational body representing Dassault employees. True to the company’s high tech nature the agreement relies heavily on   the use of leading edge communications media and methods for its information and consultation procedures.

At the beginning of March, the aeronautics group, together with the negotiation  Group specifically formed  for the purpose, signed an agreement  covering employee  involvement  in the future European Company (SE, Societas Europaea) that will be regulated under Dutch law. The agreement takes up the  existing 2008  EADS European Works Council architecture which itself  is built on the both group’s European Works Council and the works councils belonging to group’s separate divisions.