The problem of identity and trust in European works councils
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450610633037 |
| Pages | 9-25 |
| Date | 01 January 2006 |
| Published date | 01 January 2006 |
| Author | Andrew R. Timming |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
YOUNG RESEARCHER
The problem of identity and trust
in European works councils
Andrew R. Timming
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Department of Sociology,
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look analytically at the relationship between identity and
trust in the context of European industrial relations.
Design/methodology/approach – Drawing from a case study of a European works council from a
large, multinational firm in the traditional manufacturing sector, the problem of exclusionary identity
choices along the lines of national cultures and industrial relations is examined via ethnographic
methods.
Findings – In the light of the delegates’ assumed identities, it was found that trust relations in the
European Works Council case study were characteristically sub-optimal both between worker and
employers’ representatives and also among the workers themselves. The extensive lack of trust in the
forum was thought to be problematic with respect to the prospects for co-operation. As a result,
employers’ representatives are able to use the European works council as a self-serving tool of human
resource management.
Practical implications – The implications for improving cross-national industrial relations action
are spelled out in the conclusion.
Originality/value – The paper offers a unique approach to studying the obstacles to co-operation in
European industrial relations settings.
Keywords Trust, Works councils, Human resourcemanagement, Industrial relations,Europe
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The paper examines the problem of trust in European works councils (EWCs). In that
context, it looks at how worker representatives, their identity choices and their
corresponding role performances within the forms go on to influence the development
of multiple and shifting trust alliances and antagonisms along the lines of national
cultures and industrial relations. In respect to the labour-side, the paper concludes with
reserved optimism that: EWCs can be an effective means by which to further the
interests of employees insofar as the institutions also serve to redefine and clarify
questions of self-identity in a way that is conducive to the long-term establishment of
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
The author would like to thank Christel Lane, an anonymous reviewer, John Gennard and the
participants of the 2004 International Labour Process Conference in Amsterdam for their
comments on previous drafts. He would also like to thank the Cambridge Overseas Trust, the
Cambridge Political Economy Society Trust and Clare Hall for their generous funding which
made this research possible.
The problem of
identity and trust
in EWCs
9
Received 10 August 2004
Revised 22 February 2005
Accepted 23 February 2005
Employee Relations
Vol. 28 No. 1, 2006
pp. 9-25
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/01425450610633037
trust among workers. The paper also casts doubt on the emergence of solid partnership
and trust between workers and employers.
It is important to study the problem of trust in EWCs because it has never been done
at great length before. Plus, beyond just filling lacunae in the literature, the study also
has consultative implications for some trade unions, workers and central managers of
trans-European businesses. The paper thus makes both a substantive and an original
contribution to the ongoing academic debates and also offers itself as a set of
pragmatic guidelines for implicated or interested persons and organisations. In
building a bridge between theory and practice, I have sought to highlight the
importance of being both systematic and useful in the study of industrial relations in
Europe.
The first section offers a very short history of social dialogue leading up to the
Directive on the establishment of EWCs for the purposes of informing and consulting
employees. The second section draws from 19 interviews that I have conducte d with
British EWC members employed in a large, traditional manufacturing company with
operations in the UK and parts of northern Europe. Within this context, I conceptualise
five key factors that play into the underlying problem of trust in EWCs. The paper
concludes with a brief summary of its main points and some forward-looking remarks
and policy implications on how best to overcome the problem of trust in EWCs, or lack
thereof.
Social dialogue leading up to the EWC directive
The Vredeling proposal of 1980 was a pioneering draft directive that laid the
foundations for the emergence of the 1994 Directive on EWCs. According to Streeck
(1997a, p. 640), the proposal (OJ 1980/C 297/3) “specified in great detail a wide range of
information on financial, economic and employment issues to which workforces were
to be regularly entitled, and in addition established legal consultation rights on
decisions likely to have ‘serious consequences’ for employees” (emphasis in original).
From the start, it could be argued that Vredeling’s directive was, practically speaking,
doomed to failure inasmuch as its success would have required a unanimity of votes in
the Council of Ministers. As expected, by 1986, negotiations on the proposal were
adjourned, but “employers’ and employees’ federations within the Community were
encouraged to continue their dialogue ‘at all appropriate levels’ in order to reach
agreements providing for the information and consultation of employees (OJ 86/C
203/01)” (Falkner, 1996, p. 194).
The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 is thought to have been a turning point in the
struggle to re-implement information and consultation procedures at European level,
especially since it “set up the corporatist patterns which now characterize EC social
policy” (Falkner, 2000, p. 705). In addition, it also helped to push for an expansion of
“qualified majority voting (QMV) in social policy areas, in particular with respect to
‘working conditions’ and ‘the information and consultation of workers’” (Kim, 1999,
p. 397). QMV meant that legislation could no longer be blocked by one member state.
This is arguably one of the most important reasons for the UK’s opt-out of the Social
Policy Agreement. To be sure, the Conservative Government at the time was not alone
in its preference to protect the integrity of the voluntarist tradition from EU labour law
interference. Like the government, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) was not
keen on laying the groundwork for a system of European collective bargaining
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