Unilever was formally created in 1930 with the merger of British soapmakers ‘Lever Brothers’ and Dutch margarine producers ‘Margarine Unie’. Today, this Anglo-Dutch company owns many of the world’s best-known consumer brands in food, beverages, cleaning and personal care products. This case...

The Sanofi-Aventis group was formally established on 1 January 2005 as a result of the takeover of Aventis by the Sanofi-Synthélabo group in 2004. This case study is based on interviews carried out in Hungary and Poland between March and June 2006 with HR management representatives and EWC...

Headquartered in Utrecht/The Netherlands with subsidiaries in Germany, Italy and Finland, Equens is a full-service payment processing company offering services in payment and card processing and a European leader in this business segment. The transformation of Equens N.V. into an SE was...

A European Company (Societas Europaea, SE) is a relatively new legal form of company operating on a Europe-wide basis. The EU legislation governing the formation and operation of such companies also stipulates the need for employee involvement, in the form of information, consultation and...

This report looks at case studies of EWC practice in companies located in four new Member States – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia – in the context of EU enlargement. It investigates the impact of EWC participation on industrial relations in the NMS, considers how EWCs differ...

ABB is a global company, based in Switzerland and working mainly in the field of energy and automation technology. This case study is based on interviews carried out in the Czech Republic and Poland between March and May 2006 with representatives of the ABB EWC Secretariat in Mannheim, Germany,...

The Volkswagen group, with headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, is one of the leading car manufacturers in the world, with a share in global passenger car production in 2005 of 9% (5.2 million passenger car vehicles), making the company the world’s fourth largest car producer. This case study is...

Micro and small companies constitute the backbone of private business in Europe, accounting for nearly 99% of all enterprises, more than half of total employment in the private sector and an even greater proportion of new jobs. Despite their crucial place in the economy, there has been little...