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EWCs are setting up conference calls, often at weekly intervals. This is the case with LafargeHolcim where each week, a conference call, with simultaneous French-English translation, is held between the secretary, trade union coordinators and the Group HRD, as well as the Europe HRD. One conference call with members of the EWC’s health and safety committee and the managers in charge of health and safety at group level was devoted to the Covid-19 crisis. The management of the construction group Eiffage arranged a joint conference call for the executive committees of the EWC and of the France group council. At Carrefour, explains EWC secretary Michel Enguelz, “we requested and secured agreement for meetings of the select committee (6 members) to be held”. Three meetings have already been held, on 30 March, 10 April and 21 April. Pierre Goulaieff, secretary of the Capgemini international works council, explains that the frequency of executive committee meetings, which are normally held at the rate of one per month, has been doubled during the crisis period. At Generali , a Skype call between the EWC secretary, the deputy secretary and their HR opposite numbers at Group level has been organised every Monday since March. A weekly meeting is also being held between the management and the secretariat of the Axa EWC (10 members). This enhanced social dialogue is being explicitly emphasised by management at some companies. Thomas Buberl, CEO of the Axa group, has commented that social dialogue is absolutely essential in the present circumstances: it will continue through this crisis and into the next phase. Benoît de Rufray, Eiffage CEO, says “the difference in our performance compared to our various competitors will not lie in how long our business comes to a halt but in our capacity to gradually return to a state of normality, which in turn will depend, among other things, on the quality of our dialogue”.
Interpreting is being used but is not yet always running smoothly.
Some councils are making use of their company’s existing tools (such as Microsoft Teams, Webex and Skype.) This is effective when English is the working language (Axa , Dassault Systèmes, Capgemini, GSK, Orange) but if it is not, the situation becomes more complicated. “The executive committee’s meetings with management are organised using Teams, but without interpreting, which poses a difficulty for the Spanish member”, warns Philippe Luppo, Eiffage EWC secretary. Hélène Debegnac, EWC secretary at LafargeHolcim, comments that “holding a telephone meeting with simultaneous interpreting is acceptable when only two languages are involved. On the other hand, things get very complicated where several languages are used, and in this case it’s essential to receive written documentation in advance”. “We tried holding an executive committee meeting using Teams for videoconferencing, which worked well, in conjunction with the Interactio system, where interpreting is conveyed via a smartphone”, explains Martine Peyronnet, EWC secretary of Bel. The concern is that it worked smoothly for just a few minutes during the preparatory session, so the meeting with management had to be cancelled”. Sometimes people just have to rely on doing their best to muddle through. “Using Jitsi, we tried out a conf-call between different members of the select committee, explains Carole Bourner, EWC secretary of Generali , but it’s far from straightforward as not all members speak English”. However, we are also receiving feedback on successful multilingual meetings. For example, at Carrefour, meetings are held via videoconferencing, using the Google Meet system, with interpreting provided from French into Spanish and Dutch. Meetings between the Generali select committee and management also work very well with interpreting, and the same applies at Veolia.
New inequalities in treatment are emerging.
The various ways in which short-time working is being applied in different countries, with significant disparities in levels of replacement income and how leave is being taken, whether forced or otherwise, are giving rise to problems. At Carrefour , “we have seen practices varying widely from one country to another, especially as regards opening days and times”, notes Michel Enguelz, EWC secretary. “It has not been possible everywhere to ensure stores remain closed on Sundays or to reduce their opening hours, in the way France has managed to”. Another difference in treatment has been the payment of a bonus (free of tax and social security contributions) to Carrefour French employees; this has not been replicated in other countries where such a bonus is not part of the national measures implemented.
Tensions over dividend payments.
One particularly controversial subject is that of distribution of share dividends. When questioned by its EWC, Eiffage management confirmed that the company’s board had decided to waive the 2019 dividends due to be paid in 2020. On the other hand, the LafargeHolcim EWC sent “a letter protesting against the distribution of a dividend identical to that paid in 2019” to the group’s CEO, to the Chairman of the Board and to members of the Executive Committee, says EWC secretary Hélène Debegnac. Discussions have also taken place at Generali, which has decided to pay one half of the proposed dividends, while at the same time setting up a solidarity fund and not imposing short-time working.
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