European Works Council or procedures for informing and consulting employees in Community-scale undertakings

Adopting the report by Mr MENRAD, the European Parliament called for the directive to apply to undertakings employing at least 500 workers in the Member States (rather than the Council's 1000) and 100 workers (in each Member State) in at least two different Member States (rather than the Council's 150). It is up to the Member States to determine how the members of the special negotiating group are to be locally elected by the workers or appointed by the representatives of the workers in the undertaking. The European Parliament called for the deadline for starting negotiations on the establishment of the European Works Council to be reduced to one and a half years from the three years proposed by the Council. Finally, the European Parliament called for the Commission to examine the application of the directive and propose any changes needed to Council and the European Parliament five years after it enters into force.