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

The changes made by the Commission follow on from Parliament's amendments, many of which were accepted, in a bid to clarify and strengthen the initial text. They relate mainly to: - the introduction of a reference to "objective criteria" for justifying the withholding of confidential information which might seriously prejudice the undertakings in question, in order to reinforce guarantees against abuse on the part of the central management in the exercise of this right; - the re-examination of the application of the directive after 5 rather than the 7 years initially proposed; - the fact that the right of the members of the European Works Council to notify the local representatives of workers or the workers themselves of the content and results of the information and consultation procedure has been changed to an obligation; - the introduction of the right for the central management of the undertaking to convene the whole European Works Council, not just the local council, in the stated cases.�