of internal organization and sector. The chapter has located the Eurocompany
in economic, organizational and behavioural terms. More than a quarter of a
century since proposals were first introduced, the European Company Statute
(ECS) will, when implemented from late 2004, give a legal form to the
Eurocompany.
The case of EWCs has demonstrated the analytical value for industrial rela-
tions of the concept of the Eurocompany. It has been shown that EWCs repre-
sent an intersection of company-specific and transnational influences. In their
functioning some EWCs are evolving into institutions whose behaviour and
practice does not reproduce that of the national system of the parent company
but is transnational or European in nature. Are EWCs likely to provide a focal
point for the further Europeanization of industrial relations at company level?
Ahead of the adoption of the directive, employers voiced widespread concern
that EWCs would provide a stepping stone towards European-level collective
bargaining over substantive industrial relations matters. Conversely, on the
trade union side, there were and are aspirations that EWCs would provide just
such a platform. Are EWCs opening the door to European company-level col-
lective bargaining?
The potential of EWCs as a focal point for employee action at a transna-
tional level has already been glimpsed in the European-level mobilization of
workforces from different countries. Two examples were forms of protest action
following Renault’s 1997 announcement of the closure of its plant at Vilvoorde
in Belgium and the transfer of production to its Spanish facility (EIRO, 1997)
and General Motors’ European-wide restructuring plans announced in 2000
(EWCB, 2001). Conversely, the potential of EWCs as a mechanism through
which management can secure enhanced legitimacy for its cross-border
restructuring decisions and better facilitate their implementation is also evi-
dent in the automotive sector (Hancké, 2000). Elsewhere, amongst the large
Dutch banks the potential of EWCs to facilitate the promotion of common
European-wide approaches to HRM has been recognized by management
(Sisson and Marginson, 2000).
If the EWCs directive has promoted substantial negotiating activity
towards the establishment of European Works Councils, the remit of most
EWCs nevertheless remains confined to employee information and consulta-
tion. In line with the intentions of the directive, virtually all agreements define
their role as the provision of employee information and consultation (Carley
and Marginson, 2000). At present, it seems unlikely that most EWCs will
assume a collective bargaining role in the conventional sense, concluding
European-level agreements on pay and conditions. Instead, EWCs are prompt-
ing forms of ‘virtual collective bargaining’ at Eurocompany level, embracing
two kinds of process (Marginson and Sisson, 1998). First, EWCs may conclude
European-level framework agreements or joint opinions on aspects of employ-
ment policy. This has already occurred in a small but growing number of situ-
ations. Indeed, two of these, dealing with issues of employment status, rights
476 International Human Resource Management