research on transnational social dialogue and international framework agreements (ifas)

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International Labour Review

Research on transnational social dialogueand International Framework Agreements (IFAs)

By Konstantinos P

APADAKIS

*

n the past few years, research on private voluntary initiatives aimed at devel-

I

oping transnational social dialogue and collective agreements and, indeed,industrial relations beyond the borders of any single State, has increasinglyattracted the interest of international public institutions, including the Euro-pean Union (EU) and the ILO. The main focus of this research has been onInternational Framework Agreements (IFAs) reached between individualmultinational enterprises (MNEs) and Global Union Federations (GUFs).IFAs promote a number of minimum labour standards and organize a commonlabour relations framework across the worldwide operations of MNEs, cover-ing not only the operations of their subsidiaries but also those of their subcon-tractors and suppliers.

By December 2007, 61 such agreements had been concluded, coveringapproximately 5 million workers (see table). While the conclusion of IFAs isnot a new development (the first was signed in 1988, by the French companyDANONE), the pace of adoption of IFAs has accelerated remarkably inrecent years, with more that half of them being adopted since 2004. Most of theMNEs that have signed an IFA have their original headquarters in the EU,typically in France, Germany and Scandinavia.

In 2005–06, the European Commission’s Directorate General for Employ-ment and Social Affairs explored the possibility of adopting an optional legalframework aimed at regulating, through a Directive, enterprise-level and sec-toral-level transnational collective negotiations and agreements in the EU. Thistool was to be put at the disposal of enterprises and the European social partnersin order to facilitate harmonization of the different layers of social dialogue andcollective bargaining (European, sectoral, member-State, enterprise, trans-national).

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In this context, a report was commissioned, and two seminars wereorganized in 2006 to discuss it and consult with the EU social partners.

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Thedebates between the European social partners revolved around the question ofwhether such a framework would encourage corporations to engage themselves

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*

International Institute for Labour Studies. Email: [email protected] for opinions expressed in signed articles rests solely with their authors and

publication does not constitute an endorsement by the ILO.

1

European Commission:

Communication from the Commission on the Social Agenda

. COM(2005) 33 final – 09/02/2005, available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52005DC0033:EN:NOT (accessed 4 May 2007).

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E. Ales et al. (2006). “Trans-national Collective Bargaining: Past, Present and Future”, Euro-pean European Commission Directorate General Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportun-ities, February, available at http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/labour_law/documentation_em.htm5 (accessed 20 Dec. 2007).

Notes2E 00 Thursday, March 27, 2008 2:47 PM

Notes, debates and communications

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International Framework Agreements (IFAs)

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as at December 2007

Company Year

2

Sector

3

Country GUF Workerscovered

4

DANONE (BSN) 1988(1994)

Food, Drink & Tobacco France IUF 100 000

ISS 1988(2003)

Private Services (Cleaning) Denmark UNI 280 000

ACCOR 1995 Hotels, Catering & Tourism France IUF 147 000IKEA 1998 Forestry, Wood, Pulp & Paper/

CommerceSweden IFBWW 84 000

STATOIL 1998 Oil & Gas Production;Oil Refining

Norway ICEM 16 000

METRO 1999 Commerce Germany UNI 250 000FABER-CASTELL 2000 Manufacturing

(Writing Equipment)Germany IFBWW 6 000

HOCHTIEFF 2000 Construction Germany IFBWW 37 000TELEFONICA 2000 Postal & Telecommunication

ServicesSpain UNI 161 500

FREUDENBERG 2000 Chemicals Germany ICEM 27 500SKANSKA 2001 Construction Sweden IFBWW 79 000CARREFOUR 2001 Commerce France UNI 383 000CHIQUITA 2001 Agriculture, Plantations

& other Rural SectorsUnited States IUF 26 000

OTE 2001 Postal & Telecommunication Services

Greece UNI 18 500

INDESIT/MERLONI 2001 Mechanical & Electrical Engineering

Italy IMF 20 000

ENDESA 2002 Utilities Spain ICEM 13 600BALLAST NEDAM 2002 Construction Netherlands IFBWW 7 800FONTERRA 2002 Food, Drink & Tobacco New Zealand IUF 20 000VOLKSWAGEN 2002 Transport Equipment

ManufacturingGermany IMF 325 000

NORSKE SKOG 2002 Forestry, Wood, Pulp & Paper Norway ICEM 11 000DAIMLER-CHRYSLER

2002 Transport Equipment Manufacturing

Germany(United States)

IMF 372 500

ANGLOGOLD 2002 Mining South Africa ICEM 64 900ENI 2002 Utilities Italy ICEM 70 000LEONI 2003 Transport Equipment


GEA 2003 Mechanical & Electrical Engineering

Germany IMF 18 000

RAG 2003 Chemicals/Mining Germany ICEM 98 000RHEINMETALL 2003 Transport Equipment


SKF 2003 Mechanical & Electrical Engineering

Sweden IMF 39 000

PRYM 2003 Transport Equipment Manufacturing

Germany IMF 4 000

H & M 2004 Commerce Sweden UNI 40 000

(continued overleaf)

Notes2E Page 101 Thursday, March 27, 2008 2:47 PM

102



1

as at December 2007

(cont.)

Company Year

2

Sector

3


4

BOSCH 2004 Transport Equipment Manufacturing

Germany IMF 225 900

SCA 2004 Forestry, Wood, Pulp & Paper Sweden ICEM 46 000

CLUBMÉDITERRANÉE

2004 Tourism France IUF,EFFAT

18 600

LUKOIL 2004 Oil & Gas Production;Oil Refining

Russia ICEM 150 000

RENAULT 2004 Transport Equipment Manufacturing

France IMF 130 700

IMPREGLIO 2004 Construction Italy IFBWW 13 000

GEBR ROCHLING 2004 Transport Equipment Manufacturing

Germany IMF 8 000

EDF 2005 Utilities France ICEM, PSI, WFIW

167 000

RHODIA 2005 Chemical Industries France ICEM 20 000

FALCK

5

2005 Private Services(Security & Emergency)

Denmark UNI

5

230 000

VEIDEKKE 2005 Construction Norway IFBWW 5 000

BMW 2005 Transport Equipment Manufacturing

Germany IMF 106 000

EADS 2005 Transport Equipment Manufacturing

Netherlands IMF 110 000

SCHWAN-STABILO 2005 Manufacturing(Writing Equipment)

Germany IFBWW 3 000

LAFARGE 2005 Construction France IFBWWICEM

77 000

ARCELOR 2005 Basic Metal Production Luxembourg IMF 95 000

PORTUGALTELECOM

5

2006 Postal & Telecommunication Services

Portugal UNI

5

32 000

PSA PEUGEOTCITROEN

2006 Transport Equipment Manufacturing

France IMF 207 000

SECURITAS 2006 Private Services (Security) Sweden UNI

5

217 000

ROYAL BAM 2006 Construction Netherlands IFBWW 27 000

NAMPAK

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2006 Media, Culture, Graphical South Africa UNI

5

700

EURADIUS

5

2006 Media, Culture, Graphical Netherlands UNI

5

600

STAEDTLER 2006 Manufacturing(Writing Equipment)

Germany IFBWW 3 000

NATIONALAUSTRALIA BANKGROUP

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2006 Financial Services Australia UNI

5

39 300

FRANCETELECOM

5

2006 Postal & Telecommunication Services

France UNI

5

200 000

ROYALVOLKERWESSELSSTEVIN

2007 Construction Netherlands BWI 16 700

QUEBECOR 2007 Media, Culture, Graphical Canada UNI n/a


Notes, debates and communications

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further in voluntary transnational industrial relations or, on the contrary, stifletheir creativity and voluntarism in the “shadow of regulation”. The opposition ofEuropean employers to the Commission’s regulatory approach to IFAs – and tocorporate social responsibility in general – coupled with the ambiguous positionof some trade unions on this issue,

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seem to have contributed to downplaying thesignificance of the Commission’s initiative – at least for the time being. Yetresearch on the broader topic of negotiated transnational agreements withinMNEs is continuing, and further findings are expected to be released in the courseof 2008, including through a Communication from the Commission on the above-mentioned topic.

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The main concerns raised by unions at the seminars in 2006 had to do with the mandateand status of workers’ representatives negotiating IFAs (e.g. the European Works Councils) andthe compatibility of IFAs with national labour law and collective agreements.


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as at December 2007

(concl.)

Company Year

2

Sector

3


4

WAZMEDIENGRUPPE

2007 Media, Culture, Graphical Germany IFJ n/a

BRUNEL 2007 Private Services (Recruitment) Netherlands IMF 3 500UMICORE 2007 Chemicals/Basic Metal

ProductionBelgium IMF/

ICEMn/a

INDITEX 2007 Textiles, Clothing, Leather& Footwear

Spain ITGLWF 69 240

TOTAL (approx.): 4 999 790

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Only those agreements that are co-signed by at least one GUF and an MNE are considered as International orGlobal Framework Agreements.

2

Year of the first IFA adopted by the enterprise.

3

According to the ILO defin-ition of different sectors.

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Workers directly employed by the company.

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Agreement is not publicly available.Source: ILO Global Report (forthcoming). Data updated to November 2007, on the basis of various lists of IFAscompiled by: Robert Steiert (IMF)/Marion Hellmann (IFBWW), 2007; Nikolaus Hammer (Leicester University, UK),2007; IILS, 2007; ORSE, 2007, MULTI, 2007; and various company web sites (accessed 6 November 2007).

Acronyms:

BWI Building and Wood Workers International (former IFBWW and WFBW)EFFAT European Federation of trade unions in the Food, Agriculture and Tourism sectorsGUF Global Union FederationICEM International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ UnionsIILS International Institute for Labour StudiesIFBWW International Federation of Building and WoodworkersIFJ International Federation of JournalistsIMF International Metalworkers’ FederationITGLWF International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ FederationIUF International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’

AssociationsMULTI Multinational Enterprises Programme (ILO)ORSE Observatoire sur la responsabilité sociétale de l’entreprisePSI Public Services InternationalUNI Union Network InternationalWFBW World Federation of Building & Wood WorkersWFIW World Federation of Industry Workers


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In 2006–07, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living andWorking Conditions, in collaboration with a private consulting firm, AudenciaSchool of Business, and the European Trade Union Institute, engaged in re-search on “The impact of codes of conduct and IFAs on social regulation at com-pany level”.

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The study examined the negotiation process, content, functioningand impact of ten IFAs in the European Union, and compared them with asample of codes of conduct. It showed among other findings that IFAs and codesmight not be as different as they initially appear to be, at least in terms of theircontent and intended purpose. The main motivations of MNEs for signing IFAswere found to include shareholder expectations in regard to ethical conduct, cre-ation of a coherent CSR framework, worker motivation, the promotion of socialdialogue, and the improvement of “risk management”. Another important find-ing is that GUFs do not sign IFAs as a basis for legally prosecuting companies,but rather as a means of establishing an ongoing dialogue with MNEs on labourrights. Indeed, the study presents IFAs as “stepping stones” for creating globalwork councils in the MNEs concerned. Building on these findings, the EuropeanFoundation launched in mid-2007 a new research project aimed at studying thepossible contribution of IFAs to the emergence of global industrial relations.The outcomes of this research project are excepted to be released in the Summerof 2008.

The International Institute for Labour Studies (IILS) has also been con-ducting research on IFAs and other cross-border (self-)regulation initiativessince January 2006. A high level workshop on “Cross-border social dialogue andagreements: An emerging global industrial relations framework?” was held inlate 2006 and a publication is forthcoming based on the outcome.

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IILS researchin this area is focused on the international dimension of IFAs and, in particular,on the incentives that have led non-EU companies (which constitute an excep-tion among MNEs having concluded an IFA) to adopt negotiated agreementswith trade unions; it also examines the reasons that may prevent MNEs fromadopting such agreements in favour of unilaterally adopted instruments. Thisstudy is expected to be released in early 2008. The IILS is planning furtherresearch in 2008–09 in order to examine the real impact of IFAs on conditions ofwork and labour relations in MNEs, especially those located in the developingworld. In parallel with the IILS research project, two related projects are beingdeveloped at the University of Montreal and the University of Berlin (in collab-oration with the Global Labour University), and at the European Foundationfor the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.

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I. Schömann, A. Sobczak, G. Voss, and P. Wilke, (forthcoming). “The impact of codes ofconduct and IFAs on social regulation at company level”, presented at 2nd Expert meeting on“Codes of Conduct and International Framework Agreements (IFAs)”, European Foundation forthe Improvement of Living and Working Conditions,

Consiglio Nazionale dell’Economia e delLavoro

(CNEL), Rome, 16–17 April 2007.

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Konstantinos Papadakis (ed.):

Cross-border social dialogue and regulation: An emergingglobal industrial relations framework?

Geneva, IILS, forthcoming.


research on transnational social dialogue and international framework agreements (ifas)

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