Top companies will have to set up works councils
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Your support makes all the difference.MORE than half of Britain's top 100 companies will have to set up European works councils for consulting employees, according to TUC research published yesterday.
A draft directive from the European Commission on transnational companies means that groups with at least 1,000 employees in other member states, or more than 100 in at least two other EU countries, must negotiate European- wide arrangements for consulting and informing their employees.
The directive could become part of European law by November. It would then have to be enacted by member states within the following two years. Under the present timetable it is expected to be endorsed by social affairs and employment ministers on 22 June, by the European parliament in September and finally by the Council of Ministers on 19 October.
The TUC concedes that because Britain has opted out of Maastricht the companies have no legal requirement to include British employees in the process, but unions expect them to do so.
TUC officials believe that few employers will bother to draw up a different industrial relations policy for their British workforces. Even if they do, the unions argue that they will be able to influence European decisions through contact with Continental colleagues.
John Monks, general secretary of the TUC, said that the draft directive allowed ample scope for voluntary agreements on consultative arrangements.
The CBI, which opted out of the consultation process, said that employers' organisations in other EU countries were lobbying against the draft directive.
Among the 59 companies the TUC says will be covered by the directive are Allied-Lyons, Barclays, Bass, BAT Industries, Blue Circle Industries, the BOC Group, British Aerospace, British Airways, BP, British Steel, BTR, Cadbury Schweppes, Forte, General Electric Company, Glaxo, ICI, Marks and Spencer and Unilever.
Companies exempt from the directive, according to the TUC, are Anglian Water, Bank of Scotland, British Gas, National Power, Rolls-Royce, Royal Bank of Scotland, Schroders and Standard Chartered.
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