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| Ian Methven is the Amicus-AEEU European Officer and the editor of the union publication 'European Bulletin'. With an interest in European Works Councils and the Information and Consultation Directive he writes below about the prospects of the new law improving industrial relations and the training undertaken by Amicus to give their members the tools to do a new and potentially rewarding job. |
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The information and consultation directive will have a substantial impact on UK industrial relations. In most British firms, works councils are almost a foreign idea and the information and consultation directive (ICD) is likely to change that. The ICD will give workers the right to set up a works council, similar to those that are commonplace elsewhere across the EU. The ICD will allow employees on a regular basis to be informed and consulted over issues, which will directly affect them. Employers will have to inform and consult with their workforce on employment issues as well as financial developments. This will not simply involve current situations, but will include probable developments as well.
Derek Simpson the General Secretary of Amicus writes; 'The directive places a legal obligation on employers to consult and inform and this is what must happen in the UK. We need a proper structure for real employee involvement at their workplace. The biggest challenge will be educating our members about the new environment which is why I decided to part fund an education course for Amicus Shop Stewards on the directive'.
The international department of Amicus was successful in their bid for European Commission funding to run training for shop stewards on the directive. Amicus is leading the way in providing training for its shop stewards and is the first union in the UK to secure this funding. The training covered over 200 shop stewards together with their national officers from their respective industries. It concentrated on the new laws and what representatives should look out for when signing an agreement. The training ran over 3 days and was split into three sections. The first looked at an overview of the directive, the second involved an analysis of how other European countries operated information and consultation provisions and the third looked at best practice in the UK.
Unfortunately, the record on this kind of information and consultation in the UK is rather poor and, in the Union's experience, shock redundancy and closure announcements are commonplace. There are many examples where the first our members knew of redundancies was from breakfast news bulletins rather than proper work place social dialogue.
Employers have argued that further employment regulations will lead to high unemployment and burden the economy 'just like Germany'. In the TUC's Unravelling the red tape myths, this view is challenged. Unlike the UK, the German labour market structures have not only created one of the strongest vocational training systems in the industrialised world, but youth unemployment in Germany is well below that experienced in the UK and US. Recent figures show that unemployment amongst the under 25s in Germany was 9.4% compared to 12.1% in the UK and 11.9% in the US.
The TUC's high performance workplace survey also identifies the failure to inform and consult with employees as a reason for poor productivity. It points out that a low productivity economy is threatening the success of the government's programme. Because of the failure of companies to encourage employee involvement, levels of productivity have not improved. High performance workplaces are linked to relationships of trust, which involve employees in the decisions that companies make that directly impact on their working environment and practices. This creates a more open environment for good industrial relations and frees managers to be facilitators rather than concentrating on controlling employees.
Amicus has responded to the government's consultation paper on the information and consultation directive. This new law could lead to benefits to both the employer and to the employees if it is implemented within the spirit of the directive. It will be the responsibility of trade unions to train and support their officers when negotiations begin at the workplace. A number of trade unions and the TUC are putting together training materials and beginning education courses. Sadly, some independent trainers and employer organisations are also providing training to circumvent any possible agreement.
The early days of any of these agreements will be important for both companies and trade unions. Constructive negotiations within the spirit of the directive will be important. Amicus believes that this directive will help to improve industrial relations within the UK and will benefit both the employee and the employer.
AUSTRIAN SHOP WORKERS have voiced a somewhat unusual health and safety concern: muzak. The constant repetition of tunes such as 'Silent Night' and 'Jingle Bells' is a 'psychological terror' according to Gottfried Rieser, of the Union of Private Employees, 'Many staff in the retail sector suffer psychologically from it. They get aggressions and aversions against Christmas music...By the time Christmas comes around there are large scores of abused shop workers who hate the very idea of it'.
After exhausting possible legal avenues to getting the tunes silenced the union is now seeking an agreement where shops only play certain tunes between specified hours, and then only in the departments where Christmas gifts are sold. 'You don't need "Gently Falls the Snow" in the sausage section', Mr Rieser said. But Franz Penz, from the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, said the union ideas were not practical as stores could not vary the music in different departments.
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