EWCs: Renegotiating Article 6 agreements

Procedure for updating Article 6 agreements explained: once transposed into national law, a request can be made to renegotiate the agreement based on provisions of the directive.

Why it matters: Under the Commission’s proposals, once the revised Directive is transposed into national law, then either 100 employees, or their representatives, or management, can trigger a request to renegotiate the agreement to bring it into line with the provisions of the revised Directive.

The big picture: There is a clause in the existing agreement setting out how the agreement is to be renegotiated, then this can be used. If there is no such clause, and if a request is submitted, then an SNB has to be set up in accordance with the provisions of Article 5 of the Directive, as amended by Article 13 of the 2009 Directive. The 2009 amendment means that three members of the existing EWC would be added to the SNB.

The key details: These negotiations could run for up to 2 years. If no agreement is reached within the two years, the Subsidiary Requirements would apply. To recap, the SNB in the case of undertakings with Article 13 arrangements can run for up to three years. One issue that is causing concern is the requirement that Article 6 agreements in the future should contain a clause covering payments of experts, legal costs, and training costs. While it will be up to Member States to write budgetary rules on the payment of such costs in the case of SNBs and EWCs working under the Subsidiary Requirements, it will be entirely up to the parties to Article 6 agreements to agree between themselves on these issues.

The bottom line: the broad direction of travel seems to be:

• An end to the exemption from the Directive of undertakings with Article 13 arrangements.
• A two-year “window” for undertakings with Article 6 agreements to bring them into line with the terms of the Directive, if requested to do so.

What’s next:  There is, of course, still time for business to influence the process through the Council of Ministers and member companies should make their views known, if they have not already done so.

There will subsequently be a further opportunity to influence the transposition process in Member States, particularly around cost issues, the involvement of experts, and financial penalties.