Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-04-25-Speech-3-448"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20070425.41.3-448"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, 13 years after the adoption of the European Works Councils Directive, much remains to be done if this legislation is fully to achieve its objectives.
Over the last few months, many companies have carried out major restructuring projects, without consultation and regardless of this directive and of other European laws and without any of these companies having ever been punished. The crises that Airbus is going through now, that Alcatel and Volkswagen went through in the past and that Peugeot will perhaps go through in the future, are harsh examples of just what is lacking in European social dialogue.
In the case of Airbus, the trade unionists and workers that we met in Parliament or in our respective countries rightly deplored the absence of any prior consultation or true cooperation with regard to the Power 8 restructuring plan. Although we know that managerial errors are at the root of the current difficulties being experienced by Airbus and, at the same time, that it is the skills of its employees that have made it a success, the employees are the last to be informed but the first to be affected – and the most tragically affected – by this plan. As for the managers, they are shielded, because they are covered by the millions of euros of their gilded parachute. We can no longer tolerate a situation in which employees learn through the press that they are being made redundant. We need to act urgently if we are to ensure greater transparency.
For several years now, we in the Socialist Group in the European Parliament have been calling for these texts to be revised in a bid to ensure that information and consultation of workers early on, at regular intervals and at all levels of decision making will enable them genuinely to make their presence felt in the decision-making process. Thus, employee representatives ought to be able to sit on the management board of companies. This is a crucial element when it comes to workers being informed about, and monitoring, strategic decisions. This is what would make it possible, too, to ensure that these restructuring measures were really crucial to the business and not just linked to managerial errors or to the quest for immediate profit.
We also think it crucial to ensure that companies within the Union assume their social and financial responsibilities and act in accordance with a method of governance that is responsible and fair towards all of the parties involved – workers, trade unions, local and regional authorities and communities in the area in which they are based. The Commission must make a commitment to induce companies to act responsibly, including by considering legislation on their social responsibility.
It seems to me that, in a globalised setting and in an ever-changing economic situation, it is our duty today, as it was 13 years ago, to ensure that the existing directives are applied in full, including by means of sanctions against irresponsible companies but, even more so, to ensure that the existing directives are revised so that they go further with regard to information and consultation of workers, and to works councils. By doing so, we will make it clear that we are strongly attached to a socially responsible Europe."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples