Documents Alaimo, Anna 2 results

"This article examines Directive 2009/38/EC concerning the establishment of a European Works Council (EWC) or a procedure in Community-scale undertakings and Community-scale groups of undertakings for the purposes of informing and consulting employees, approved by the Parliament and the Council on 6 May 2009. Starting from the revision of the 1994 Directive, this article concentrates on the innovative aspects and ‘omissions' in the new Directive. The main aims of the new Directive are the determination of the powers of the EWC, now limited to ‘transnational issues'; the definitions of information and consultation; and the specification of preliminary information in the setting up of an EWC – in particular, information concerning the structure of the business (or group) and the number of employees. The most significant ‘omission' in the new Directive is the lack of any reference to the negotiating activity of the EWC, that as a general rule has given rise to forms of ‘transnational collective bargaining' and which, in recent years, has been the subject of numerous studies and research initiatives promoted by the European Commission. In conclusion, it is argued that the question of the (uncertain) legitimacy of EWCs as negotiating partners – and of the possible regulation of the forms of ‘transnational collective bargaining' – remains complex and difficult to resolve."

"The article addresses current issues and relevant prospects of European social dialogue (ESD). It examines the decline of the statutory-agreements and the simultaneous advance of the autonomous agreements. The main issue addressed in the central part of the essay concerns the Commission's power to propose the agreement to the Council for its implementation. Indeed, both the “Better Regulation Package" (which introduced the “impact assessment" in regard of requests to implement collective agreements) and the Judgment of the General Court in the EPSU case have reinterpreted the Treaty's provisions on the ESD (articles 152, 154, 155 TFEU) with the aim of supporting the Commission's full discretion to approve the agreements' legislative statutory implementation or to reject it. The final part of the article is dedicated to the strengths of the autonomous agreements to which the development prospects of the European Social Dialogue seem to be linked."