Veralia is part of St Gobain group. Strategy: 

Our strategy is based on service and innovation backed by efficient manufacturing facilities operating under the world's highest standards. This strategy is reflected in the significant levels of capital expenditure both in mature and emerging countries.

Verallia's unique business model combines "strength" with "proximity" – the strength of a global leader offering efficient state-of-the-art industrial facilities to meet the exacting needs of global players, united with the proximity of a local market presence to serve customers of all sizes.

Our policy mainly consists of:

Listening carefully to and working closely with our regional and global customers to jointly identify the best possible packaging solutions as early as possible in the development process;

The ongoing quest for innovation in all areas of glass packaging: shapes, colors, appearance, decoration, closures, handling, and fit with bottling processes in coordination with the industry's best partners;

A constant eye to quality and manufacturing excellence by implementing best practices and state-of-the-art technology at all our plants, backed by a global network and more than three centuries of glassmaking expertise.

source: http://verallia.com

Human resource managers all over Europe just like EWC meet and discuss about HR approaches unions and best practices. In order to better communicate they need and use interpreters and translators. Languages spoken recently in a meeting included German, English, French, Italian, Spanish …. 

 

EWC:

European Works Council Background to the implementation of the European Works Council Directive through the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations. Employees of large multinational companies based in the UK and with a presence elsewhere in Europe have a right to ask for a European Works Council (EWC) to be set up.  An EWC is a body that represents employees of the multinational in the European Economic Area (EEA) in discussions with management on transnational issues. The right to be represented by an EWC was first introduced by the European Works Council Directive in 1994.  This was extended to cover the UK in 1997 and was implemented in the UK through the OPSI - The Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 1999.  A new EWC Directive was agreed in May 2009, which retained the structure and overall approach of the earlier Directive whilst introducing some important changes.  The Government undertook a public consultation on the Directive in autumn 2008 before it was finalised. Following a further public consultation in the winter of 2009/10, the UK Government has introduced the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees (Amendment) Regulations 2010 to implement the new Directive. The new Regulations were finalised and signed on 30 March 2010 and a link to the Regulations will appear here as soon as they are published on the OPSI website.  Those parts of these Regulations which implement the Directive come into force on 5 June 2011. The new Regulations have been introduced more than a year before they commence in order to give all parties an opportunity to examine them in detail before they come into effect and to inform decisions which parties may wish to take in the interim. The 2010 Regulations operate by amending the original 1999 Regulations. BIS has published guidance explaining these regulations: 

source: http://bis.gov.uk/policies/employment-matters/rights/info-con/ewc

 

European Works Council meeting is a chance for Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees and HR / Management. Big groups like St Gobain, Elf, Total, Buigues, Michelin, Alcoa, Johnson & Johnson, Club Med & … if you are looking for up-to-date information on European Works Councils, then check: The EWC database is a specific service by the European Trade Union Institute. June 2012 there were : 1225 record(s) found on the database. The database contains the details and texts of agreements that have established European Works Councils, as well as agreements negotiated by EWCs on specific topics (substantive agreements). In delivering this service the ETUI co-operates with the European Industry Federations and with the Social Development Agency (SDA) which offers further analysis of these documents. The database also contains (brief) information on multinational companies falling within the scope of the EWC Directive including records and reference to European Companies and their SE Works Council agreements. The database has been widely used as a reference source by assorted EU and national institutions as well as research and academic centres. It also represents a useful tool for all practitioners dealing with EWCs and employee participation in their daily work (e.g. European Industry Federations, trade unions, shop stewards, employee representatives, EWC members). Apart from the database service on the ewcdb.eu you can find information on some legal aspects of functioning of EWCs ('Legal provisions' section). In addition to that, in the legal area of ewcdb.eu ('Jurisprudence') you can find a recent list of legal cases (ECJ and national courts) in which EWCs were involved, or where a decision had an impact on their functioning. Further information on EWCs in a broader context of employee participation in the EU can be found on another specific website created by the

ETUI: www.worker-participation.eu. source: http://www.ewcdb.eu/search_results_ewc.php