3rd transnational EWC Seminar – Strategically into the Future
In the first two seminars, the framework conditions for restructurings in corporate groups as well as working within and on the own EWC team were addressed. The third and last seminar dealt with the specific exchange of experiences and the active testing of possible EWC strategies.
EWC Seminar “Strategically into the Future”
The participants of the previous seminars met in Amsterdam from April 24th to 26th, 2017. EWC members from the following companies were present: ATOS, Deutsche Telekom, DHL, DS Smith, Heineken, Novartis, Raiffeisen Bank International, Thomas Cook and TNT. They came from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Poland.
Testing by means of role-playing
The participants were given the opportunity to test what they had learned by means of a fictitious restructuring case. They had the possibility to prepare themselves internally for the case in groups (each representing the EWC of the given company). The first target was to achieve an extraordinary meeting of the European Works Council with management.
The groups could freely choose their discussions and strategy development. In some instances, the trainers (in the role of the general manager) realised targeted interventions. The other trainers observed the processes and, subsequently, gave feedback.
Discussion of case examples and levels of escalation
All participants of the seminar have already had experiences with restructurings in their corporate group. This seminar offered space for the presentation of case examples and joint discussions. Thus, the EWC members could learn from the insights of others. It was important to lead joint discussions on different options.
Different levels of escalation were investigated on that basis. Also in this respect, it was important that participants could exchange their experiences in small groups. On the one hand, examples of how to react to a certain measure were collected. On the other hand, the EWC members talked about their practical experiences with these strategies.
Outlook
The third seminar constituted the end of the series of seminars for European Works Councils within the context of the EU Project “EWC – Fit for Change”. The results will be recorded in the form of publications. This project will be rounded off by a large final conference on June 22nd and 23rd, 2017 in Vienna.