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Press Communication (3 April) The agreement is believed to be the first exclusively New Member States European Works Council and will have representatives from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland and Romania.. It will be composed of 23 members. The Steering or Select Committee will have 7 members. The primary way to nominate the EWC members will be through the trade unions. The EWC will allow the trade union representatives from the different subsidiaries and countries to address important issues such as the strategies, the financial and economic prospects, employment trends and mergers and acquisitions of the company.
EPSU Deputy General Secretary Jan Willem Goudriaan welcomes the agreement and comments: CEZ has agreed information and consultation rights that go beyond those in the EWC Directive. CEZ recognises that it has to seek agreement with the EWC over major issues such as restructuring and mergers.
He adds: As the first exclusively New Member States’ company to set up an EWC, CEZ is yet another company which recognises that the EWC Directive defines information and consultation inadequately. The European Commission should show initiative and bring forward proposals to revise the Directive.
The EWC follows an initiative of EPSU and the unions concerned. EPSU provided expertise to the Special Negotiating Body.
The Special Negotiating Body (SNB) and CEZ management signed the EWC agreement, 3 April 2007 Prague. The SNB was chair by Karel Klusák of the Czech energy union and EPSU affiliate Echo.
The company employs 25.000 workers in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. It is intending to expand into other Balkan countries and has been bidding for companies in Macedonia and Montenegro amongst others. CEZ is involved in production, distribution, district heating and retail. It has nuclear, coal and hydro power plants amongst others. The Czech state is majority owner and as such is similar to Swedish Vattenfall, Finnish company Fortum, Dutch Essent and French company EdF, all with dominant public interests.
For more information please contact Jan Willem Goudriaan, + 32 2 2501080 or epsu@epsu.org
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“EPSU is the European Federation of Public Service Unions. It is the largest federation of the ETUC and comprises 8 million public service workers from over 200 Public Service Unions in 37 countries. We organise workers in health and social services, local and national administration, energy, water and waste. We are the recognised European social partner organisation in each of these sectors. EPSU is committed to building a European Union that promotes democratically accountable public services of the highest quality, within and beyond it’s borders. For more information on EPSU and our work please go to: www.epsu.org”
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