THE Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) is to step up its campaign to prevent CRH from establishing a European Works Council (EWC) for over 6,000 of its workers without consulting the company's unions. This follows a ballot of CRH's Irish workforce last Thursday which showed 60 per cent in favour of the management's proposals.
However, only 37.3 per cent, or 937 out of 2,510 Irish workers voted and under Irish legislation an absolute majority of EU workers must be in favour before the company can lodge an EWC agreement unilaterally. It is now up to 3,700 CRH workers in four other EU countries to decide whether the company can exclude the Irish unions from a say on the composition of its EWC.
The company has availed of the UK "opt out" from the EU Social Charter to exclude more than 3,000 workers in Britain and Northern Ireland from the process. It is also by passing the need for ballots in some other EU countries.
The Netherlands has the greatest concentration of workers after the UK and the Republic. The ICTU has written to its Dutch counterpart, the FNV, seeking assistance in urging CRH workers there to reject the company's proposals.
If the proposals are defeated the company will be obliged to enter negotiations on the structure of its EWC with employee representatives.
The Irish unions are anxious for this because the EWC constitution proposed by CRH has no provision for regular meetings and limits the issues the EWC can discuss to matters that directly affect more than 3 per cent of the total EU workforce, or more than 10 per cent of workers in subsidiary companies in two or more EU states.
The EU ballot should conclude by the end of the month. If the company gets a majority for its proposals, the elections to the EWC will follow shortly afterwards.
The ICTU industrial officer, Mr Stephen McCarthy, said after the Irish count: "Despite the fact that they might get a majority the means the company has used raises a question mark over their commitment to the spirit and letter of the works council legislation. It is supposed to be about promoting greater information and consultation between workforce and management."
Mr John Kane, of SIPTU, the largest union in CRH, accused the company of "hijacking" the EWC process. "It is regrettable that a major Irish multinational company is adopting this approach when other EU multinationals, including British ones not bound by the legislation, are adopting a much more positive approach to their unions."
Senior trade union sources expressed anger yesterday that a company like CRH, one of the largest five private sector employers in the country, was rejecting the partnership approach to industrial relations on the eve of talks for a successor to the Programme for Competitiveness and Work.
A company spokesman rejected union allegations that it had adopted its current approach to the EWC issue to stymie greater consultation. The ballot was very open, properly monitored and constituted, he said. "I find it hard to understand how undertaking a ballot of employees can be seen as underhand or being unco operative."
He said the reason many issues were excluded from the proposed EWC remit was that CRH operated in very localised markets.
Under the directive, any EU company employing more than 1,000 people and with at least 150 employees in two or more member states has to set up an EWC for information and consultation purposes.