European Federation of Journalists

Building on experiences : a win-win approach to transnational industrial relations in multinational companies

Lead Applicant : European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)
Associated organisations : BusinessEurope, CEEP, BDA, DA, MEDEF, EFBWW, EFFAT, EFJ, EPSU, ETF, IndustriAll and UNI Europa

Project financially supported by : DG EMPL 01 Budget Line – European Union

In recent years, Transnational Company Agreements (TCAs) have become an increasing practice in multinational companies (MNCs). This is the result of the internationalisation of industrial relations in which European and International trade unions (TUs) on the one hand, and some MNC’s, on the other hand, have found a common ground for action.

In previous years, both the ETUC and BUSINESSEUROPE have worked separately on this topic. Now they are submitting together a project to discuss about benefits – for both companies and workers – produced by TCAs as well as to address the problems met by parties with regards to negotiating and managing these agreements. Benefits and problems will be identified thanks to the help of external experts through a survey report in which representatives of TU’s, employers and Multinational Comanies will be involved in.

The findings of the survey will inform the discussions held during the two workshops (on negotiations and dispute handling and on implementation, monitoring and implication of TCAs for supply chains). During such workshops, a group of experts (representing TU’s, employers and MNC’s) will analyse experiences and practices concerning those issues, with the aim of finding shared solutions. The day after of each workshop, the steering committee will agree on the key outcomes of such discussions and the results will inform the joint report. This may lead to the setting up of a shared path for the future development of TCAs but it depends on how far the dialogue between management and labour will go.

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