Book III: Employee representative bodies

A European Works Council or an information and consultation procedure is set up in Community-scale undertakings or groups of undertakings in order to guarantee employees’ right to information and consultation at European level.

For the purposes of this Title, a dominant undertaking is defined in Article L. 2331-1.

The consultation provided for in this Title shall consist, for the head of the undertaking or the leading undertaking in the Community-scale group of undertakings or any other more appropriate level of management, in organising an exchange of views and establishing a dialogue with the representatives of the employees at a time, in such a way and with such content as to enable them to express, on the basis of…

The information provided for in this Title shall consist, for the head of the undertaking or the leading undertaking in the Community-scale group of undertakings or any other more appropriate level of management, in forwarding information to the employees’ representatives in order to enable them to become acquainted with the subject under consideration and to examine it. The information shall be provided at an appropriate time, in an appropriate manner…

The competence of the European Works Council or the procedure mentioned in article L. 2341-4 concerns transnational issues. Transnational issues are those which concern the entire Community-scale undertaking or group of undertakings or at least two undertakings or establishments of the undertaking or group situated in two Member States.

The information and consultation of the European Works Council are coordinated with those of the other staff representative bodies mentioned in this book and those set up in application of the law of the Member State in whose territory the undertaking or establishment is located, according to their respective competences and areas of intervention. When the European Works Council is set up in the absence of an agreement or when…

If significant changes occur in the structure of the Community-scale undertaking or Community-scale group of undertakings, either in the absence of provisions provided for by the agreement(s) in force or in the event of conflicts between the provisions of two or more applicable agreements, the head of the undertaking or the dominant undertaking in the Community-scale group of undertakings shall initiate the negotiations referred to in Article L. 2342-1 on…

By way of derogation from Articles L. 2341-6 and L. 2341-7, the head of the undertaking or of the dominant undertaking in the Community-scale group of undertakings which launches a takeover bid for the capital of an undertaking is not required to refer the matter to the European Works Council or to the employees’ representatives as part of an information and consultation procedure prior to such launch. However, the European…

The use of videoconferencing to convene meetings of the European Works Council may be authorised by agreement between the head of the dominant undertaking in the group and the employee representatives sitting on the committee. In the absence of an agreement, such use is limited to three meetings per calendar year. A decree determines the conditions under which the European Works Council may, in this context, hold a secret ballot.