The EWCs study (subscription required), carried out by Mark Carley, editor of European Employment Review, reports on the detail of 67 agreements signed by a total of 41 multinationals.

Mark's analysis suggests that two-thirds of companies signing agreements with their EWCs are manufacturers, with metalworking and chemicals particularly well represented. Companies headquartered in France, Germany and the US also predominate.

The subject matter of the agreements divides neatly into three almost equally sized groups:
•    those dealing with Europe-wide or global principles such as workers' rights or corporate social responsibility;
•    those dealing with a single HR-related, such as health and safety or data protection; and
•    those dealing with aspects of company restructuring and change, either in relation to a specific exercise or simply laying down general principles.

Recent examples include the July 2007 agreement reached by German-based Daimler Chrysler with its EWC on the transfer of sales staff following the separation of Chrysler, and two April 2008 deals signed by US-based General Motors on restructuring and outsourcing.

The article notes that while the scale of the phenomenon is hard to gauge, it is clear that a growing number of multinational companies see value in reaching agreements on certain matters with their EWCs.

Even in "Europeanised" companies, the move towards some form of "Euro-bargaining" is likely to depend heavily on the extent to which workers' representatives and management are willing and able to negotiate at this level.

But the emergence of a negotiating role for EWCs has attracted interest from the European Commission, which has been considering the idea of creating an "optional European framework for transnational collective bargaining" so that agreements can be made binding.

The commission is planning to make more detailed proposals on this issue in summer 2008.