About the European Works Councils database
Structure of the database
Current figures and features
Content analysis of EWC agreements
Access to the database
History
Database structure
The structure of the database is based on three main levels: Companies, (having one or more) European Works Councils, (based upon one or more) Agreements. You can browse through the three levels starting from any individual company record, EWC body or agreement.
Additionally the companies, EWCs or agreements are linked to
- organisations (national trade unions or European Industry Federations) who co-ordinate EWC action or are involved in signing the agreements, or official bodies with which EWC agreements have been registered.
- additional documents (judgements of the court, reports, articles, news items or press releases, etc.) that include references to the company, EWC or agreement, as well as to other organisations (e.g. courts in case of litigation)
Features
Documents available for download
- 2750 EWC agreements
- 285 Additional documents
- 283 Global agreements
- 188 Substantive agreements
- 179 Sectoral social dialogue agreements
- 153 National case law
- 134 National legal provisions
- 109 Revision of the EWC Directive
- 105 EU legal provisions
- 69 European Court of Justice
- 41 Cross-sector agreements
- 9 EUSD framework
Search criteria
For all three main levels Companies, European Works Councils and Agreements, searches can be performed on
-
Any part of a company name
The system searches through all parent companies and subsidiaries and returns the parent company that has the given string in its name or in the name of one of its subsidiaries. -
Sector of activity
The system returns all records linked to a parent company that has activities in the chosen sector. For more information about sectors, see this page. -
Headquarter country
The system returns all records linked to a parent company that has its headquarters in the chosen country.
At the European Works Councils level, you can also search by year in which the EWC was created.
A global search on all documents available for download can be performed by these criteria:
- Any part of a title or description of the document
- Any part of a company name the document is linked to
- An organisation the document is linked to
- A topic the document is linked to
This search returns a list of documents of all types (EWC agreements, national case law, additional documents...)
New features (2010)
- a full text search in the news section allowing for access to information on EWC practice; (please include a hyperlink to the news section);
- search by thesaurus items linked to agreements, documents and news items (please include a hyperlink to the thesaurus search in news section);
- exceptional provisions in EWC agreements features list of agreements standing out either in a positive or negative way from the common standards, searchable according to more than 100 criteria (access for recommended trade union members only).
Free graphs, statistics
A number of free statistics and graphs are available from the Statistics and graphs page, and a selected set are available for paid subscribers from the same page.
Content analysis of EWC agreements (new 2010)
Following a long period of cooperation between the two separate databases of ETUI and the Social Development Agency (SDA) in 2008 a decision was taken to integrate them into one. This strategic move to merge the entire range of services offered hitherto by ETUI with the content analysis of agreements performed by the SDA has been executed since then. The analysis covers over 80 questions to each agreement and is performed by M. Monaco (SDA, mmonaco@etuc.org) and R. Jagodzinski (ETUI, rjagodzinski@etui.org) under coordination of prof. Jeremy Waddington.
Hereby, on www.ewcdb.eu we present some initial results of the analysis of individual agreements. The number of analysed agreements will be increased gradually and selected results will be presented in individual agreement's records.
Access to the database
There are three options for obtaining access to the database now:
- FREE access for NON-REGISTERED users:
- free consultation of brief data on companies, EWC agreements or other documents.
- free viewing of the first page of the agreements.
- FREE Access for REGISTERED users:
- free consultation of brief data on companies, agreements and other documents
- free download of up to five complete EWC agreements.
-
PAID Access: registered users paying a subscription get
- free consultation of brief data on EWC agreements or other documents.
- consultation of company data, including notes and employee figures
- a link to the EMF EWC database (wherever available. To view the data, you must register to their service)
- download all available documents
- get assistance with specific statistical requests (exclusively for paid subscribers)
+ 24-hours subscription
+ 1-year subscription - Access for certified trade union members and experts allowing for
- Consultation of data on exceptional provisions in EWC agreements (good, bad practices, examples of outstanding solutions) according to more than 100 search criteria (granted on individual basis).
For further information on access please refer to the subscriptions section.
Brief history
In collaboration with some twenty-one research institutes and the European Industry Federations, the ETUI initially created a database that identifies multinational companies that fall within the scope of the EWC Directive. This database was put together for the first time in 1995.
In 1999, the ETUI created another database containing English texts of agreements setting up EWCs.
In 2004 the collection of agreements and the data on multinationals were integrated into a single database and supplemented with a selection of data analysing the contents of the agreements, provided by SDA-Infopoint. The latest published update was issued in 2006 on CD Rom.
In 2005 a selection of the data was put online which enabled EWC members to inform us about changes in the composition of their EWC or to send us copies of renegotiated agreements.
In 2007 the database was made accessible online via www.ewcdb.eu and complemented with new features.
In 2008 a decision was taken to integrate content analysis of EWC agreements hitherto performed by the Social Development Agency into the ETUI database of EWCs. Since then both organisations have been cooperating on this common project.
Thanks to the strong cooperation with the European Industry Federations (EIFs) and thanks to various networks of researchers we have been able to complete the collection of texts and update, in a reliable way, records for a number of EWCs and companies. The team working on the EWC project has put a great deal of effort into ensuring quality and accuracy of the EWC database. Nonetheless, as with any database that is covering an evolving subject, the available information will at times be incomplete. The ETUI will ensure, however, that updated data will occur on the website as new information becomes available.
We hope you will find the data and texts you require in this database and will be glad to receive any comments, suggestions and corrections regarding both the content and the interface of the database and website to Irmgard Pas, e-mail: .
For any further information or comments regarding the contents, e-mail: .
Irmgard Pas
Database manager , ETUI.
Research department
Romuald Jagodzinski
Researcher, ETUI.
Research department
