On 08-09 09, the European Conference of Works Councils was held in Brussels, organized by the ETUC. It was also attended by representatives of the European Works Council of the ORLEN Group, also representing our Kolegium . The motto of the conference was „More democracy in workplaces”. The question is „for what?” , „how is this supposed to serve workers?”, „will wages increase from democracy and will working conditions improve?”
European Works Councils shall exercise the worker’s right to information. The right to information has two tasks;
- Information about the company in which he works prevents unemployment from the announcement and timely information provided to employees in good time. An employee who is informed in good time (earlier than the Code – Art. 23[1] of the Code of Civil Procedure 30 days) about changes or restructuring is better able to take care of his professional future.
- In addition, correct information provides the employee with the opportunity to express his opinion on topics that directly concern him. This sentence, if it coincides with the opinion of the majority of the crew, shall be forwarded by the European Works Council to the central management. According to the Act, the Management Board is obliged to take this sentence into account when deciding on the future of enterprises. All this implements the principle of participation of employees in the management of enterprises and the principle of social market economy expressed in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. I will write more about the contemporary approach to employee participation in business management in another study.
In modern market economies, therefore, the worker is not an „object” for which only the salary and conditions in which he works are important, and the rest are prerogatives reserved for and guarded by management boards. He should feel co-responsible for the workplace.
The right to information is therefore as important for workers (and thus for the trade unions or ewc representing them) as the right to decent working conditions and pay.
On 09 09 22 panels were held one;
- relations erz with the bodies of parent companies in capital groups. In our case, it is PKN OLREN S.A.
- the position of European Works Councils in international capital groups
- employee representatives on the boards of parent companies
- the importance of information for business crews and in social dialogue
- meaning of bodies in the european work councis
At weekly intervals, I will present the conclusions (in the form of studies) from discussion panels and from workshops in which I and other members of the ERZ ORLEN Group took part.
I will be the first to present the subject of relations between the ER and the bodies of parent companies in capital groups.
Marcin Szymanek
Secretary of ERZ ORLEN Capital Group
