Now that it has a framework for the negotiation of transnational agreements (see our dispatch No.  100677), EADS has renegotiated its success-sharing agreement, which dated back to 2009.  The new agreement, signed in June with the special negotiating body born from the transnational bargaining procedure, cancels and replaces the previous text.

First major European project.  The agreement presented on May 5th has a double meaning for Allianz SE.  On the one hand, it is the official recognition of growing problems caused by the development of stress at work.  It is also the first cross-border initiative launched by the EWC for the employees: “Since the adoption of the status of European Company in 2006, the EWC was mostly busy with accompanying the group’s restructuring, which included many job cuts.  However, negotiations took place at regional...

To prepare employees to anticipate and manage their career evolution, the group commits, with this agreement, to provide employees with visibility on evolutions within careers and professions via national Professions and Competences Councils managed by a European Professions and Competences Council and a common professions referential model.  An annex describes the uniform composition of these Councils, a shared methodology and the development of a 3-year plan as well as the elements on which it should rely...

Safeguarding employment in a period of crisis or structural change.  To deal with the current crisis and its foreseeable impact, the agreement contains a commitment to avoid layoffs as much as possible.  To that end, the company commits to developing internal mobility, providing employee requalification, appealing to short-time working, developing part-time work, and so forth.  When all possible alternatives to layoffs have been exhausted, the group commits to enter into negotiations to propose redeployment...

Social guarantees.  The declaration was issued after a meeting on August 23-24 between Kimberly-Clark and UNI/KC Union Network.  In the text, the parties commit to meet at least once a year for “proactive” communication and finding solutions to identified issues.  They also commit to promote the “public acknowledgement” that Kimberly-Clark is a socially responsible employer.  The declaration also mentions that the company will comply with international labor standards, notably the ILO Declaration of...

Clearing by the EWC.  “To reinforce its integration and improve personnel representation, the EADS group must be able to define and implement transnational policies” reads the preamble of the pending agreement, to explain the reasons why it defines “the applicable procedure at European level for the negotiation of a transnational issue relating to the entire EADS group or one single of its division.” “EADS’ EWC has been discussing this project for a long time” a negotiator confided. Indeed, the...

Philippe Decressac, HR senior vice-president of the group, “is happy with this endorsement” and pointed out that “more than psycho-social risks, the point was the quality of life at work and the prevention of work-related stress during the talks opened in December 2009.”  This Charter “proves that Social Responsibility is a fundamental principle.”

Procedures. Present in many European countries, Etex is a Belgian company specialized in construction materials. In June, it adopted a charter to better protect its workers and the environment. Thus, the Charter lays down principles regarding the prevention and management of risks, and particularly focuses on workers’ participation. These procedures provide for risk analysis on safety, health and environmentally-related objects for all workplaces, with the participation of the employees and their...

With the closing on June 7th, this European agreement on social guarantees within the framework of the sale of Areva T&D is the end of a story and the beginning of another. For Areva’s staff representatives, who have been struggling for over a year, work is ending for their T&D colleagues. For the Asltom Schneider consortium, which is buying these transmission and distribution activities, begins the work of separating them and introducing the respect of the commitments taken in the agreement signed with...