European missions
The European directive of September 22, 1994, transposed in national Labour laws, instituted the obligation to create a European Works Council or to set up a workers information/consultation procedure at Community level.
For example in France, the article L 439-6 Al. 1 of Labour law specifies that “in order to guarantee the right of the workers to information and consultation at a European level, a European Works Council or a procedure of information, exchange of views and dialogue is instituted in companies or groups of companies of European dimension”.
It governs companies or groups of companies of European dimension and large size, employing at least 1000 workers inside the European Community, and having at least two factories in two different states, with at least 150 workers in each of them (art. 2c of the directive).
It also applies to companies or groups of companies having their registered offices outside the European Union (for example in the USA or Japan).
Article 7 of the European directive states in the same terms that “the European Works Council and the restricted committee can benefit from the assistance of the expert of their choice as far as it is necessary to the achievement of their tasks. The company, or the top company of the group of Community dimension takes charge of expenses linked to the intervention of an expert”.

 

European Works Councils can be created into two ways (conventional or legal).

The EWC created on the basis of an agreement
EWC constituted through voluntary agreements before the directive of September 22, 1994 are not subject to the subsidiary regulations of the directive; the methods for designation, intervention and payment of the expert are defined in the initial agreement or in an additional clause to this agreement.

The EWC implemented without an agreement
“The EWC and its bureau can benefit from the assistance of an expert of their choice as far as it is necessary to the achievement of their tasks. The company, or the top company of the group of Community dimension takes charge of expenses linked to the intervention of an expert”.












 The recourse to an expert

The agreement may include the opportunity to the EWC to benefit from the assistance of a chartered accountant financed by the company for the analysis of annual accounting books and of prospects for the European group. Moreover, our consultancy is specifically adapted to the main needs expressed by EWCs, due to a thirty year practice in the field, experiencing at close hand the economic, technological an organizational transformations, reproduced in their strategic environment.