A significant number of restructuring processes are currently ongoing in the EU in different sectors following the Covid-19 crisis and will likely continue in the next months. Given the urgency of the situation, the European Trade Union Federations (ETUFs) and the ETUC have initiated a joint strategy for More Democracy at Work. Workers’ interests must be heard at all times.

Management needs to comply with workers’ information, consultation and participation rights in good time before any relevant decision is taken. To make sure this is the case, these rights must be enforced by European and national authorities and the current legal framework needs to be improved.

The ETUC and European Trade Union Federations have flagged this several times and have sent two letters to European Commissioner Schmit.

The strategy aims at

• Ensuring the implementation of existing rights and strengthening the legal framework at European level;
• Ensuring enforcement of existing rights, access to justice and dissuasive sanctions at national level.
• increasing the awareness of the importance of information, consultation and participation rights, in particular in restructuring processes, and will include actions towards managements of specific companies, upon request from the unions and affiliates involved.
• increasing trade union efforts, strengthening the coordination and mobilising affiliates and workers’ representatives to action.

In this context, several events, actions and communication initiatives are organised, such as:

• Specific events targeted towards the European institutions;
• A petition for workers’ representatives and trade unions to be addressed to the European Commission and national governments. Sign here;
• A week of mobilisation in November involving national confederations;
• Videos and other social media activities involving EWC members and other workers’ representatives addressed to European and national institutions;
• Production and use of dissemination material to raise awareness of workers’ rights and possibilities, including for access to justice in case of violations of existing requirements;
• A series of workshops organised by the ETUC for training EWC members and other workers’ representatives on key issues (e.g. litigations, workers’ rights in restructuring processes…);
• Political, organisational and communication support on specific cases of restructuring where ICP rights have not been respected.

Keep an eye on our website for upcoming actions.