"Managing Employee Relations in Europe" is a programme, run over 3 days, designed to assist participants to better understand and manage employee relations at the European level.  Companies that have participated in the programme over the past 6 years include: American Express, Alliance Boots, Ford of Europe, Eli Lilly, Hilton Hotels, General Motors, Nissan, Toshiba, Unisys, Hewlett Packard, Cisco Systems, Textron, Intel, United Technologies, ACAS, BusinessEurope, Johnson & Johnson and General Motors Europe. Attendance at the programme has included senior HR directors, employee relations specialists and in-house employment lawyers of more than 12 nationalities.

We will next be running the programme in Sitges, Barcelona, starting at 0900 on Wednesday, October 13 and finishing at lunchtime on Friday, October 15. 

The programme covers: 

• The changing dynamics of employee relations management in Europe
• The various systems of employee relations across Europe
• The impact of the European Union on European employment law
• The information and consultation requirements involved in the new and more demanding European Works Council Directive which will come into force in June 2011, including:
  • How the Directive is being transposed into national law
  • Trade union strategy as regards renegotiating existing EWC agreements
  • Court cases involving EWC
• National information and consultation procedures in key European countries and how to manage them in cases of collective redundancies and the transfer of undertakings
• Profiles of Europe's major trade unions - who they are and what to expect 
• National systems of collective bargaining and how to minimise risk and exploit opportunities
• The nature of industrial action - what to expect and how to deal with it. 

The programme offers participants an ideal opportunity to examine in detail how the 2009 European Works Council Directive will impact on their existing EWC agreement, whether they have an Article 6 or Article 13 agreement.  For companies within scope of the EWC Directive but which have not yet been asked by the employees to set up an EWC then the programme offers the opportunity to plan how to react to a request from employees' representatives to set one up.  The programme will be particularly useful for companies which need to look at the structure of EWC because of upcoming mergers or acquisitions. 

Alan Wild - Based in Switzerland and whose background includes experience as Global Employment Policy Director of Guinness; Director and member of the senior management team of the International Labour Organisation; and consultant on international employee relations with more than 300 of the world's largest companies.

Tom Hayes - Based in Belgium, an ex trade union official in Ireland who has been a successful consultant on international employee relations issues for around 25 years. Tom is Europe's leading business expert on setting up and managing European Works Councils.

Wally Russell - Based in Ireland and who has recently joined the BEERG team after a long and successful corporate career, most recently as Employee Relations Director of Hewlett Packard's EMEA region. He managed successive international change programmes and handled complex international acquisitions at Nortel Networks, Compaq and Hewlett Packard.

The programme will begin on Wednesday morning, October 13 at 0900 and finish at 1200 on the Friday, October 15. The location will be Sitges, Barcelona. The conference fee includes accommodation for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights along with all meals and refreshments.

The programme fee is €3950. For BEERG/HR Policy members the fee is €3000. To reserve a place on the programme simply e-mail us at: tom.hayes@beerg.com

For more information about BEERG and our activities - find us on www.beerg-europe.com