Anticipation of change and the sustainable management of structural changes: Promoting innovative actions to strengthen employee involvement and social partners’ cooperation COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN EFFAT COCA-COLA European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions, EUROPEAN PARTNERS REGIONAL ORGANIZATION WITHIN THE IUF A comparative study of Collective Bargaining Agreements in CCEP: MEMBER OF THE ETUC RUE DU FOSSÉ-AUX-LOUPS 38, BTE 3 B-1000 BRUSSELS Ph +32 (0) 2 218 77 30 F +32 (0) 2 218 30 18 EMAIL [email protected] WEB www.effat.org 2 3 A Project co-financed by the European Commission VP/2016/0295 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN COCA-COLA EUROPEAN PARTNERS THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CROSS-BORDER COLLECTIVE PREFACE 1 BARGAINING COOPERATION. This analysis has been carried out within the framework of the EFFAT Collective bargaining cooperation promotes the exchange of informa- project: Anticipation of change and the sustainable management of struc- tion about how working and employment conditions are set out in the tural changes: Promoting innovative actions to strengthen employee in- various countries where a company operates. volvement and social partners’ cooperation. Although industrial relations systems across Europe differ greatly, such The project aimed at identifying effective actions to be taken by EWC exercise allows workers’ representative to learn more about rights and members, EFFAT Coordinators in Transnational companies (TNCs) and standards negotiated by their colleagues in other countries. Moreover, European Works Councils (EWCs) and Trade Union officers dealing with it facilitates the identification of good and bad practices as well as the multinational companies to foster cross-border trade union cooperation establishment of common goals to be negotiated at national level. In and deal with the anticipation of change at company level. this regard, collective bargaining cooperation can be considered as the first step to be taken towards the establishment of a minimum floor of In order to achieve this important target, an innovative and pragmatic ap- rights and standards across the countries and the sites where a trans- proach has been implemented focusing on the following main objectives: national company operates. EFFAT believes that, when European Works councils are unionised and well-coordinated by an EFFAT representative, they are one of the most appropriate platforms where a collective bargaining cooperation should be carried out. This is mainly because EWC meetings are a unique opportunity for workers representatives to meet on a regular basis with the support of translation and interpretation facilities. Such structure gives EWC members the opportunity to strengthen synergies and build up a successful cooperation. To better allow such coordina- tion, thanks to this project EFFAT has developed a clear methodology and working tools that are now at the disposal of the EFFAT EWC-TNC network through the EFFAT TNC-EWC Portal. 6 THE USE OF TRANSNATION- negotiate agreements with transnational companies. Moreover, thanks to the experts’ contributions and the debate carried AL COMPANY AGREEMENTS out in the framework of the project, EFFAT has developed a Template TCA Agreement on responsible restructuring. Such agreement is avail- (TCAS). able for all EFFAT affiliates and aims at achieving the following priorities 2 in transnational companies: ● Improving the anticipation of change, through a constructive so- If the development of a cross-border collective bargaining cooperation cial dialogue and through effective and timely information and can be considered as the first step in identifying a floor of minimum consultation mechanisms that see the full involvement of EFFAT rights and standards across the various countries where a company and its national affiliates operates, the signature of a TCA is surely a concrete tool to implement such standards. ● Preserving and developing the competences and skills of em- ployees to enable them to adapt to change Moreover, the adoption of a TCA and its implementation at European and national level represents a valid and fair procedure to tackle so- ● Building a robust mechanism for addressing organisational cial dumping and ensure equal treatment among workers and across change by minimizing negative social implications of this change borders. and strengthening workers’ employability. EFFAT is involved in the current debate at EU level among the ETUC, ● Setting out a minimum set of standards to be respected and Business Europe and the European Commission on the future of TCAs. actions to be undertaken when restructuring is announced an- Although EFFAT’s main priority is the strengthening of national and ywhere in companies’ sites. sectorial collective bargaining agreements, we must acknowledge that TCAs are becoming an increasing practice since quite some years. Over the last decade, TCAs drew also the attention of EU Institutions and the ILO. EFFAT took part in the recent ETUC – Business Europe TWO CASE STUDIES project on TCAs Building on experiences: a win-win approach to trans- In order to develop the above-mentioned actions in a pragmatic way, the national industrial relations in multinational companies. This project put EFFAT EWC-TNC Coordinators network has specifically targeted two trade unions, employers’ organisations and companies around the ta- transnational companies operating in the EFFAT sectors: Coca-Cola Eu- ble and initiated a debate based on 8 case studies and on previous ropean Partners and McDonald’s. These two companies served as case projects on TCAs carried-out by both the ETUC and BusinessEurope. studies on which the appointed experts have developed two reports. Both EFFAT believes that the autonomy of social partners may be exercised the finding and the conclusions of the case studies are included in the in different ways, and TCAs are certainly one important tool that trade respective reports. unions and multinational companies may make use of, considering the In addition to these case studies, two practical working tools have been specific national circumstances. Differences in social dialogue and col- created: lective bargaining practices across European countries are often re- garded as an unsurmountable obstacle for the deployment of transna- ● The collective bargaining cooperation questionnaires and; tional industrial relations in Europe. ● the above-mentioned TCA agreement on responsible restruc- Nevertheless, experience shows that such barriers can be overcome turing by applying a pragmatic and inclusive approach. The success of a TCA indeed resides in the capacity to involve all concerned actors in both The two reports and the working tools have all been disseminated through the adoption and practical implementation of its provisions. the EFFAT EWC-TNC network thanks to the project’ events and the EFFAT TNC-EWC Portal. Along the project’s period EFFAT has insisted very much on the need for Trade Unions to control the TCA phenomenon. An internal discus- sion on the role of TCAs has been launched in EFFAT governing bodies on the basis on the already existing internal procedures for EFFAT to The analysis on the grounds of which this study was conducted covers all the Collective Bargaining Agreements (hereinafter CBAs) that were transmitted to the author by the Trade Unions represented in Coca-Co- la European Partners plc. affiliated to EFFAT. In some cases, Indus- trial Relations are governed by Interprofessional and Sectoral CBAs, DISCLAIMER in other cases mainly by law. This means that not all the aspects of how Industrial Relations function in practice in each country are taken into account in this study. On the contrary, the author is aware that there may be gaps and omissions, or simply implicit content that do not emerge in this study, when such aspects are not explicitly mentioned in the CBAs that were analysed. Furthermore, all practitioners of Industrial Relations are aware that the practice does not always correspond to the rules defined in writing, es- pecially when interpersonal relationships have a direct, yet intangible, effect on the practice. Thus this study should be considered as an attempt at drawing a pic- ture of what relations may look like, rather than having the pretence of being a “single source of truth”. Against this backdrop, the readers are asked to look at this study as “work in progress” and that their input is most welcome to complete and improve this study, as well as addressing unclear or unresolved items. 2. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN CCEP 31 2.1 Comparative Key Figures 32 TABLE OF Collective Bargaining - Levels and Coverage 33 2.2 The Sources: Collective Bargaining Agreements Analysed 34 CONTENT Homogeneity and Heterogeneity 36 Introductory Note 2 2.3 Comparative Overview: 46 Shift Patterns and Working Hours 46 1. CCEP - A MERGER OF MERGERS 4 Holidays and Leave of Absence 52 Remuneration Structure 57 1.1 The Merger in Summary 7 Performance Related Pay 67 Pension Schemes 73 1.2 The Influence of The Coca-Cola Company 9 Pre-or Partial Retirement Schemes 76 Work/ Life Balance 78 1.3 Overview of the 3 Merging Partners: 11 Vocational Training Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. 11 81 Stress at Work / Health and Safety Coca-Cola Iberian Partners, S.A.U. 15 85 Anticipation of Change - Information and Consultation 88 Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetränke GmbH 20 Anticipation of Change and Restructuring: Germany 97 Anticipation of Change and Restructuring: France 101 1.4 Expected Benefits of the Combined Company 22 Competitive Strategies of CCEP 25 3. CONCLUSIONS Anticipated Risks Connected to the Merger 27 106 INTRODUCTORY NOTE mitigating, potential effects on employment. Thus, the EFFAT Coca-Cola Coordination Group was set up, and subse- quently its Steering Committee, which decided to focus on cooperating mainly in two areas: The “Coca-Cola System” is one of the largest employers in the world. Be- tween TCCC, CCEP and Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, the “sys- the exchange of information in case of labour disputes, so as to allow for tem” employs almost 45,000 people in the EU. And many more in indirect mutual support and the creation of an Early Warning Network for real time positions depend on it.