Revision of the European Works Council Directive

Practical information

• Composition of the study group & calendar
• Administrator in charge: Bartek Bednarowicz / Assistant: Clelia Campos Garay

Summary

European Works Councils (EWCs) are bodies representing EU employees of larger multinational companies. They are designed to ensure workers receive information and have a dialogue with central management on significant decisions at EU level that could affect working or employment conditions. Following Council Directive 94/45/EC, more than 1250 EWCs were established. In 2009, recast Directive 2009/38/EC sought to address identified shortcomings, counter the declining trend in the creation of EWCs and clarify several key concepts (such as 'transnational issue').

The Commission evaluated the implementation of the 2009 recast and reported in 2018 that the quality and scope of information supplied to workers had improved, but that effective consultation was still lacking. The European Parliament, in its own-initiative resolution of 16 December 2021 on democracy at work and the European framework for employee participation rights, reiterated its call to prevent the abuse of confidentiality rules. It called on the Commission to define clearly in which cases confidentiality was justified to restrict access to information and, if needed, to propose a revision of the directive. On 30 November 2022, Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs adopted a report which calls on the Commission to submit a proposal for a revised EWC Directive by 31 January 2024. In its work programme 2024, the European Commission foresees a proposal for the revision of the European Works Councils Directive to be adopted on 16 January 2024.