Blog

The Works Council exported:
Global Works Councils and employee representation outside Europe

Increasingly, SBI Formaat collaborates with Dutch companies and NGO’s that work internationally, and that establish staff representation bodies locally overseas as well as at the global level. Take for example IRC, an independent, non-profit that drives resilient WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) systems from the ground up. While its head office in the Netherlands has had a Works Council since 1997, in recent years the organisation established staff representation bodies in Uganda and Ghana, while currently Ethiopia discusses the possibility. Meanwhile, SBI Formaat assists IRC in developing a Global Works Council, largely modelled after the Dutch Works Council Act, but with tailored variations fitting IRC’s values and characteristics.

In the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, we have a legal framework on workers participation. In European countries, workers have the right to be informed and consulted on managerial decisions which affect them, although in practice not all countries have an active practice of staff representation (notably in Eastern Europe, but also in Southern Europe few active bodies exist). Furthermore, at European level, employees of multinational companies are organised in European Works Councils.

In other parts of the world, however, systematic involvement of employees is not common, and often a legal framework for it does not exist. Nonetheless, looking at employee representation outside Europe, we can distinguish between different forms.

Firstly, there are humanitarian and development non-profits, who want to practice what they preach in terms of values like leaving no one behind and listening to every voice. Cordaid, ICCO, Hivos, Greenpeace, War Child and SNV are Dutch NGO’s with staff representation bodies overseas. Also commercial companies show interest, especially those that take corporate social responsibility seriously. Because in many non-European countries, legislation for company-level employee representation is missing, the Dutch Works Council Act and experience is then taken as a basis, and the international structures they establish are called Global or Corporate Works Councils.

Secondly, there is a very specific form of overseas’ employee representation in governmental and UN organisations with overseas missions. Larger Dutch embassies have Works Councils, fully under Dutch law, while embassy staffs deputed by Dutch line Ministries, are linked to the Works Council structure at that Ministry. UN agencies have some form of employee participation specific to that UN agency.

Finally, a still modest  number of multinational companies have taken the initiative to establish a global works council. Since no global legislation exists, companies like Volkswagen and Michelin have chosen to connect their Global Works Council to the European Works Council, while cooperating closely with global trade union confederations. An alternative method to involve non-European employees is to invite them  to meetings of the existing European Works Council. This is done for example by AXA. The councils mentioned in this paragraph relate to large multinationals and therefore differ substantially in size and dynamics from the ones in internationally operating NGO’s and small and medium size corporates with a headquarters in the Netherlands.

Diederik Prakke, trainer and advisor SBI Formaat.

Helping you out

We look forward to helping you reflect whether your organisation wants to establish staff representation bodies overseas and/or at global level. And we look forward to guiding you and your stakeholders through a consultative process that identifies and agrees a model that optimally fits your values and circumstances.

International employee representation