BEERG Newsletter - EWC: Amazon signs European Works Council Agreement

Amazon has signed a European Works Council Agreement with a Special Negotiation Body representing Amazon employees from across the European Union, including the UK. It comes into force on July 1 next.

The agreement was signed in Dublin last week. 

Amazon received a request to begin the process in 2018. It could have defaulted to the Subsidiary Requirements (the minimalist model imposed when management and an SNB cannot reach agreement) in 2021 after the three-year negotiating period allowed for in the legislation came to an end. But because the negotiations had been disrupted by Covid, the parties preferred to pause the discussions until they could resume in-person meetings. 

While the SNB process was conducted under Luxembourg law, the EWC agreement will be subject to Irish law. Amazon, as a US company, preferred to work in an English language country, with a common law system. Some highlights:

• Management agreed to include representatives from the UK, despite Brexit. 
• There will be one, face-to-face meeting a year between management and the EWC. But the EWC can request a second meeting.
• There will be additional “virtual meetings” between management and the select committee. 
• “Exceptional circumstances” – such as collective redundancies – will be trigged if proposed decisions impact on at least 5% of the company’s European workforce, or at least 7% in each of two countries.
• The EWC may use an expert to assist at meetings for up to 15 days in any one year. The expert must live in an EU country and be able to work across the EU. 
• Outside of meetings, EWC members can have 24 hours off work each year for EWC activities. They will also be entitled to 4 days individual training over four years, along with one day’s collective training.

An innovative feature of the agreement is the establishment of a three-person panel to adjudicate disputes. Either side will nominate one member of the panel. The chair will be drawn from an agreed list. If the findings of the panel are not accepted, the dispute can be referred to the Irish courts.

To the best of our knowledge, the Amazon agreement is the first to be finalised under Irish law since Brexit saw multiple US and UK companies move their EWCs from the UK to Ireland. It sets a benchmark for future deals.  

Speaking for management, Alan Wild, European Labor Relations Director, “   … welcomed the agreement and the compromises made by both sides to make it possible. The agreement is one thing but more important is to start the EWC in a positive spirit.”