Project description submitted by UNI Europa

Budget heading: 04.03 01 06

Call for proposal: VP/2016/003

Application reference:VP/2016/003/0008

The challenges of the digitalisation in the services industry: a new area for information, consultation, and participation rights of workers and transnational negotiations

Introduction

The digital future is already here - the digitalisation of Europe is exciting but carries with it challenges as well as opportunities. Europe needs to respond quickly to this development to ensure that it leads to economic growth, quality jobs, a skilled workforce and social justice.

The European Commission has responded to digital development with the Digital Single Market Package (the DSM Package) and with it hopes to ensure the proper functioning of the single market by facilitating digitalisation and addressing challenges like EU copyright and telecom rules, and high costs of parcel delivery in Europe.

Although UNI Europa welcomes the Commission’s effort to respond to digital development, it finds the Commission’s approach too narrow and consumer-focused and lacking in emphasis on how this development affects workers of the services industries and in particular their rights to information, consultation and participation.

Digitalisation of the economy and society is an important challenge for the European trade union movement. Digitalisation stands for the fourth industrial revolution which is about to change industry, services, markets, but also the world of labour. Digitalisation means opportunities as well as risks. Studies currently available on the future of work suggest that there will be winners and losers amongst workers. A risk is that digitalisation might become an additional driver of social and territorial inequalities.

UNI Europa is clearly in favour of using new technologies in a way that serves citizens, workers – in particular female and older workers – as well as companies that respect national and European (labour) law and regulations. Adequate protection for workers engaged in digital work is needed to avoid an ‘Uberisation’ of work, and the emergence of a new digital precariat.

We need to make sure further digitalisation isn’t coupled with wage dumping, mass redundancies, excessively dominant online platforms (including sharing economy portals), precarious working conditions, a rise in atypical employment and the invasion of employee privacy (personal data).One major challenge consists of ensuring information, consultation and board - level representation as well as minimum wage and obligatory social security.

Governments, employers and trade unions must work together to enable European companies and workers to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by digitalisation, and avoid job losses and worsening working conditions

Digitalisation is not just about opening up markets, it must also be about dealing with the social impacts on employment, on working conditions and on work-life balance.

UNI Europa represents about 7 million workers in the service and communication sectors through its 350 affiliates from some 50 different European countries.

Of the 1071European Works Councils currently active in Europe, about 260 are entirely or jointly coordinated by UNI Europa. There are different sectors in UNI Europa that are responsible for coordinating the European Works Councils that cover their sector. In view to better fit for purpose[1], UNI Europa decided to develop a coordinated approach concerning its work as regards EWCs and multinational companies. In 2011, UNI Europa adopted guidelines on European Works Councils that aim to define a more unified approach to all EWCs and in 2013 a cross sectoral working group on MNCs/EWC has been set up to develop strategic objective for MNCs and EWCs.

The main strategic objective adopted by this working group in its action plan was to establish Establishment of strong, stable and sustainable trade union alliances among affiliates with the view to improve the working conditions, ensure a successful consultation process for employees and a factual influence on the decision making process of company’s managements[2].

UNI Europa is convinced that there is a need to progress on the establishment of such structure in key multinationals in view to reinforce the dialogue at Multinational European level and to establish the framework conditions for possible transnational negotiations.

In order to implement this objective, UNI Europa launched in 2015 a project entitled “Building trade union alliances: UNI Europa strategy to strengthen transnational workers[3]’ representation in Multinational companies which allowed to organise 19 trade unions alliances meetings.

Furthermore, this overall strategy has been reaffirmed and endorsed during the 4thUNI Europa conference[4] which supported the establishment of effective and well-functioning trade unions alliances covering a limited number of multinational companies in each sector. The purpose is to support organising and collective bargaining throughout a company as well as to intervene on decisions by group management that have implications on workers in more than one country.

UNI Europa fights for an overarching transnational framework for industrial relations for each multinational company that do not replace but links national level industrial relations. At its basis, trade union alliances bring together all unions organising within a multinational under the umbrella of UNI Europa.This framework should be tailor-made to the specificities and realities of the UNI Europa sectors and each targeted multinational.

Thanks to this project, UNI Europa would like:

-Encourages works councils, EWCs, workers’ representatives in general and on company boards in particular to take a close look at internal as well as external outsourcing and to ensure that standard working conditions and collectively agreed wages are fully applied. New digital business practices and the introduction of new ICT must be supervised from the very beginning. Longstanding challenges – such as long working hours, stress, digital skills and work- life imbalance – are intensifying and need to be tackled.

-Actively explore ways to negotiate European Framework Agreements on digitalisation, to ensure that common rules are established and respected throughout the whole company and value chain, covering, for example, the involvement of workers’ representatives in the introduction of new ICT (no pretext for dismissals), 3-D printing, adequate rules on data protection, big data, excluding performance or behavioural checks or remote controls, private and operational use of internet (voluntary ‘mail on holiday’, out-of-office or holiday replacement, Mobile Device Management, the right to disconnect), use of social media, as is already the case in many national company agreements. EFAs can be one important element in a trade union strategy for fair digitalisation. Action at European level can help to cushion the digital divide, to ensure equal treatment and to turn threats into opportunities.

-Monitor company strategies on digitalisation more closely and to ensure that self-employed people are organised in trade unions and represented in the ICP bodies, which is not yet the case everywhere.

-Anticipate and manage the transition in close cooperation with trade unions, EWCs, workers representatives in general. Good work in industry 4.0 or smart services needs to be based on a new social contract, with strengthened and enlarged information, consultation, participation rights, with democracy at the workplace.

-Improve the involvement of Central and East European affiliates in EWCs and work of Trade union alliances to face together the challenges and opportunities offered by the digitalisation.

-Raise awareness and better understanding of the future skills needs linked to digitalisation and ensure that the issue is on the agenda of EWCs.

Link to the objectives and priorities of the budget heading

To this end, UNI Europa has identified key Multinationals companies (see annex from nine services sector i.e. Finance,ICTS, Commerce,private security, Temporary work agency, Post & Logistic, UNI Care, Graphical, Packaging, Publishing and Media sectorsto promote trade union transnational cooperation on the issue of impact of digitalisation on information, consultation and participation rights of workers and transnational negotiations.

With regard to specific objectives, the actions provided for by the project are as follows:

  • Proactively influence the work programmes of the EWCs on the issues covered in the directive, but also on other aspects that could be the subject of a social dialogue at a transnational level, such as: digitalisation, introduction of new technologies, skills needs
  • Promote the development of EWCs as powerful tools for the participation of workers in the decision-making process of multinational companies
  • Use the information and consultation process to support union activity in the company at a national and transnational level, with particular regard to the preparation of collective negotiations related to digitalisation
  • Improve the coordination between the EWCs members of each targeted companies
  • Provide specific support to increase the involvement of Central and East European affiliates in EWCs
  • Improve the link between EWCs and the dialogue structure at other levels (workplace, regional, national or international)
  • Make sure that employees’ information and consultation rights are better observed
  • Improve union support to EWC members
  • Strengthen transnational cooperation between workers’ representatives
  • Reinforce existing Trade union alliances and support the establish of new trade union alliances in the targeted companies
  • Reinforce cooperation between the social partners for the development of employee involvement in the design of solutions addressing the challenges and opportunities related to the impact of digitalisation in the services industry.

Duration of the activities

The project will last 24 months from the start of the preparatory phase until the end of the follow up phase: 1st December 2016 – 30 November2018.

Staff involved in this project are:

-Oliver Röthig, Regional Secretary, UNI Europa – employee

-Nicola Konstantinou, Secretary UNI EG and Teamleader for Multintaionals/EWCs, UNI Europa - employee

-Sabrina De Marchi, Policy officer for Multinationals/EWCs, UNI Europa – employee

-Natalie Swan, Policy officer property services sector and UNI Care, UNI Europa - employee

-Laila Castaldo, Policy officer commerce sector, UNI Europa - employee

-Claudia Saller, Policy officer finance sector, UNI Europa - employee

-Birte Dedden, Policy officer ICTS sector, UNI Europa – employee

-Richard Polacek, Policy officer MEI sector – UNI Europa – employee

-Dimitri Theodorakis, Policy officer Post & logistic

-Véronique Ernould, Administrative assistant UNI Europa EG and MNCs/EWCs, UNI Europa - employee

-Catherine Grauwels, Administrative assistant Commerce, UNI Europa - employee

-Vicente Garcia Arena, Administrative assistant ICTS sectors, UNI Care and Private security, UNI Europa - employee

-Lucia Sampaio, Administrative assistant Finance sector and Post & Logistic, UNI Europa - employee

-Daniel Garfunkel, finance officer, UNI Europa – employee

Preparatory Phase

Start date / End date / Venue / Type of event
1st December 2016
/ Brussels / Project Start
2ndDecember 2016
/ 24January 2017 / Brussels / Recruitment of the external expert
24 January 2017 / 22 January 2017 / Brussels / 1st meeting of the steering committee of the project

The project aims to put the following nine UNI Europa sectors to work on the impact of digitalisation on information, consultation and participation rights of workers and transnational negotiations (Finance, Commerce, private security, Post & Logistic, UNI Care, ICTS, temporary work agencyand the Graphical and Media sectors).

This phase includes the preparation of the 24 transnational trade union meetings as regards the organisational aspects (booking of hotel, of the meeting room, sending of invitation, translation of the materials for the workshop etc.) as well as the content (preparation of the invitation, agenda and materials for the meetings). The UNI Europa team on MNCs/EWCs will be in charge of those administrative tasks, including e.g the organisation of steering committee meetings, organisation of transnational trade unions meetings (drafting and sending of invitations, finalisation of the agenda, choice of speakers, practical arrangements, etc, dissemination of information, etc.)and the European final conference.

A steering group willassistthe UNI Europa team on MNCs/EWCs in the implementation of the several activities of the project. The group will be composed of

-8 trade unions representatives from the different sectors involved:

-one from UNITE/United Kingdom for TWA,

-one from Fistel-CISL/Italy for the Media sector,

-one representative from ver.di/Germany for the graphical sector,

-one representative from Swedish Transport for the private security sector,

-one representative from FNV/Netherlands for the commerce sector,

-one representative from UILCA/Italy for the finance sector

-one representative from LBC-NVK/Belgium for the ICTS,

-one representative from FEC-FO/France for UNI Care

-2 representatives from the UNI Europa team on MNCs/EWCs

-6 sectoral policy officers

-1 external expert.

The composition of steering committee reflects the sectors and key affiliates in the multinational companies concerned by the project.

The steering groupwill meet 3 times during the project. The steering committee will support the implementation of the project activities (supervise the effective implementation by the staff of all actions of the project, and will take all the necessary decision to ensure the achievements of the objectives of the project, the budget control, evaluation of the activities and dissemination of the results) . It will be the main driver in the definition of the strategy to reinforce existing Trade union alliances and support the establishment of new trade union alliances in the targeted MNCs.

02/12/2016: Recruit the project expert, arrange and prepare the first meeting of the steering group

The UNI Europa team for MNCs/EWCs will also put out a call for tenders to recruit the project expert. The expert will have the role of assisting and supporting the team in the preparation of the organisation of the transnational trade union meetings and the European conference on Digitalisation and impact on information, consultation and participation rights of workers and transnational negotiations. He/she will have to

  • Prepare sectoral background document on the impact of digitalisation in the sectors concerned in the project activities. These documents will serve as a basis to launch the debate on the impact of digitalisation during each meeting of the trade union alliances involved within the project.
  • Identify good examples of joint positions/declaration adopted by EWCs / Transnationals agreements negotiated and or specific activities undertaken by a trade union alliance related to the impact of digitalisation in a specific sector/ multinational company
  • Prepare the background report to be presented to the final cross sectoral European conference on Digitalisation and impact on ICP rights of workers and transnational negotiations

He/She will attend all meetings of the project's steering committee planned by the project and the European cross-sectoral conference. On the basis, of the reports produced by the policy officers in charge of the organisation of the 24 transnational trade union meetings, he/she will prepare the background report that will be presented during the European conference.

The background document prepared for the European conference will be discussed and the final version will be approved during the third meeting of the steering committee of the group. As soon as it is adopted, it will translated into FR, DE, IT, SP and Polish and distributed.

UNI Europa’s team on MNCs/EWCs will recruit the expert before 24 January 2017.

24 January 2017– First meeting of the steering group inBrussels, Belgium

The first meeting of the steering committee will take place in Brussels on24 January 2017. This meeting willin particular, define the common framework of the organisation of the 24 transnational trade union meetings. It will also set down the financial framework for the seminars, draw up a model invitation for all of the transnational trade union meetings and a common structure for the agendas, and specify the profile of the expected attendees.

01/02/2016 – 01/05/2018: Follow up of the first steering group meeting and preparation of the 24 transnational trade unions meetings

For each UNI Europa sector involved in the project, a limited number of multinationals (1to 4) were identified with a view to carrying out the actions planned within the framework of this project. (See list of targeted multinationals in annex).

Based on the framework defined by the first meeting of thesteering group, the policyofficers from the sectors involved in the project and the representatives from UNI Europa team on MNCs/EWCs will prepare the organisation of the transnational trade union meetings. Theywillprepare the agenda and the documents that will be used during the meetings. They will also will identify the target participants for their meetings, i.e, the trade union representatives and the trade union official concerned by the Multinational, the members of the EWCs as well as the coordinators of the EWCs of those companies, with a particular attention to the representatives from Central and Eastern European countries. There must be no more than 20 participants for each transnational trade union meeting.

As part of a predefined budget, each Policy officer will be responsible for the practical organisation of their own transnational trade union meetings (hotel, interpreters, interpreting equipment, invitations, enrolment, list of participants, etc.).

Main Events

Start date / End date / Venue / Type of event
06/04/2017 / 06/04/2017 / Madrid / Transnational trade union meeting for DS Smith
11/04/2017 / 11/04/2017 / Prague / Transnational trade union meeting for Société générale
27/04/2017 / 27/04/2017 / Bucharest / Transnational trade union meeting for Auchan
09/05/2017 / 09/05/2017 / London / Transnational trade union meeting for G4S
15/05/2017 / 15/05/2017 / Brussels / Transnational trade union meeting for Teleperformance
07/06/2017 / 07/06/2017 / Paris / Transnational trade union meeting for Vivendi
19/06/2017 / 19/06/2017 / Gdansk / Transnational trade union meeting for Smurfit Kappa
21/06/2017 / 21/06/2017 / Dublin / Transnational trade union meeting for Primark
07/09/2017 / 07/09/2017 / Warsaw / Transnational trade union meeting for Credit agricole
18/09/2017 / 18/09/2017 / Amsterdam / Transnational trade union meeting for Liberty Global
02/10/2017 / 02/10/2017 / Brussels / Transnational trade union meeting for Manpower
12/10/2017 / 12/10/2017 / Glasgow / Transnational trade union meeting for MPS
17/10/2017 / 17/10/2017 / Bucharest / Transnational trade union meeting for Groupama
09/11/2017 / 09/11/2017 / Madrid / Transnational trade union meeting for Prosegur
21/11/2017 / 21/11/2017 / Paris / Transnational trade union meeting for Orpea
24/11/2017 / 24/11/2017 / Amsterdam / Transnational trade union meeting for Lidl
04/12/2017 / 04/12/2017 / Madrid / Transnational trade union meeting for Prisa
11/12/2017 / 11/12/2017 / Lyon / Transnational trade union meeting for DPD Group
09/01/2018 / 09/01/2018 / Lucca / Transnational trade union meeting for Sofidel
16/01/2018 / 16/01/2018 / Brussels / Transnational trade union meeting for Axa
20/02/2018 / 20/02/2018 / London / Transnational trade union meeting for Vodafone
26/02/2018 / 26/02/2018 / Sofia / Transnational trade union meeting for UniCredit
12/03/2018 / 12/03/2018 / Berlin / Transnational trade union meeting for Axel Springer
20/04/2018 / 20/04/2018 / Roma / Transnational trade union meeting for Inditex
29/05/2018 / 29/05/2018 / Brussels / Second meeting of the steering group

01/04/2017 – 20/04/2016: 24transnational trade unions meetings