Activites

• 1994/09/30 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Directive 1994/45
  • OJ L 254 30.09.1994, p. 0064
• #1784
• 1994/09/22 Council Meeting
• 1994/09/22 End of procedure in Parliament
• 1994/09/22 Act adopted by Council after consultation of Parliament
• 1994/09/20 Modified legislative proposal published
  • COM(1994)0406
• 1994/09/15 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T4-0009/1994 summary

    The European Parliament approved the Council's common position subject to 11 amendments to the proposed text. It extended the scope of the directive by including undertakings or groups of undertakings with more than 500 workers established in two or more Member States with more than 100 workers in at least two of these Member States. It decided that the members of the works council should be appointed or elected by the workers or the workers' representatives, taking account of the need to represent the various groups of workers employed in the undertaking (no such provision was made in the draft). The representatives of establishments or undertakings belonging to a group located outside the Community may be authorized to join the special negotiating group. As far as the application of the principle of autonomy of the special negotiating group is concerned, the deadline for reaching an agreement (before subsidiary requirements laid down in the legislation of the Member State in which the central management is located applies) has been reduced from three to one and a half years. Parliament also limited the facility to introduce specific provisions for the benefit of the central management of undertakings with an ideological objective regarding information and opinions where such provisions already existed in national legislation, as is the case with German legislation ("Tendenzschutz"). It strengthened the guarantees protecting the activities of workers' representatives within the framework of the council, with a ban on any discrimination and protection from redundancy or any other sanctions as the result of acting and intervening in their official capacity. The Commission is required to submit changes to the application of the directive to the Council and the European Parliament five years after it enters into force.

• 1994/09/06 Vote in committee, 2nd reading
  • A4-0002/1994
• 1994/07/22 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 2nd reading
• #1778
• 1994/07/18 Council Meeting
  • 07584/1/1994 summary

    As well as introducing editorial amendments which were aimed at clarifying and specifying the objectives and content of the proposal, the common position of the Council made a number of basic changes to the text, namely: - Member States would have the option not to apply national rules for the transposition of the Directive to personnel from the merchant fleet; - the second threshold for the number of employed workers, the purpose of which was to define the Community-scale undertaking or group of undertakings, was raised from 100 to 150; - Member States would be able to lay down the budget rules which governed the functioning of the special negotiating group and European Works Council, including restricting the financial responsibility to a single expert; - the time limit for negotiations between the special negotiating group and the central management was extended from 2 to 3 years, in order that an agreement might be reached; - Member States would be able to introduce special measures on behalf of the central management of those undertakings and establishments which directly and essentially pursued an ideological objective with regard to information and opinions; - Member States would be able to adopt regulations designed to safeguard the non-disclosure of information relating to disputes being heard before administrative or judicial authorities; - the time limit for the Commission to re-examine the modalities for the application of the Directive was reduced from 7 to 6 years; - the maximum number of members of the limited council group of the European Works Council was reduced from 5 to 3; - Member States would be able to lay down the rules governing the chairmanship of the information and consultation meetings, thereby allowing the Directive to be adapted to all national systems. Finally, the Council adopted almost all of Parliament's amendments which had been accepted by the Commission in its modified proposal. �

• 1994/06/03 Modified legislative proposal published
  • COM(1994)0228 summary

    The changes made by the Commission follow on from Parliament's amendments, many of which were accepted, in a bid to clarify and strengthen the initial text. They relate mainly to: - the introduction of a reference to "objective criteria" for justifying the withholding of confidential information which might seriously prejudice the undertakings in question, in order to reinforce guarantees against abuse on the part of the central management in the exercise of this right; - the re-examination of the application of the directive after 5 rather than the 7 years initially proposed; - the fact that the right of the members of the European Works Council to notify the local representatives of workers or the workers themselves of the content and results of the information and consultation procedure has been changed to an obligation; - the introduction of the right for the central management of the undertaking to convene the whole European Works Council, not just the local council, in the stated cases.�

• 1994/05/04 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T3-0408/1994
• 1994/05/03 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 1994/05/02 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1994/04/27 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A3-0330/1994
• 1994/04/13 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(1994)0134 summary

    The proposal for a directive incorporated, within the context of the social protocol, a proposal put forward in 1990 which sought to establish a European Works Council for Community-scale undertakings or groups of undertakings with a view to informing and consulting the workers. The proposal covered undertakings with more than 1,000 employees, with at least two establishments employing more than 100 persons in two or in several Member States. It was also aimed at undertakings based outside the Community or in the United Kingdom, if they met the above criteria. The establishment of the Works Council would be a matter of negotiation between the company management and the workers' representatives. In the absence of an agreement, a certain number of minimum provisions, which were defined in the proposal, would be applied in respect of the scope of the information and consultation process and the conditions under which the Works Council would operate, thereby ensuring that workers were informed and consulted. �

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(1994)0134
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A3-0330/1994
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T3-0408/1994
• Modified legislative proposal published: COM(1994)0228
• Council position published: 07584/1/1994
• Committee recommendation tabled for plenary, 2nd reading: A4-0002/1994
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading: T4-0009/1994
• Modified legislative proposal published: COM(1994)0406
• : Directive 1994/45
• : OJ L 254 30.09.1994, p. 0064

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)