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Some 90 representatives of Nordea’s personnel in 11 countries recently attended a three-day seminar on European Companies and employee influence.
This main seminar of the Nordea SE Project was held at the Danish conference centre Kobæk Strand on 29 November – 1 December.
“I am very satisfied. The seminar has been conducted in a very good spirit and we have taken important steps towards the vision “One Company – One Union,”” said Bertel Finskas, President of the Nordea Union Board (NUB), when he concluded the seminar.
Apart from trade union delegations from the four Nordic countries, the seminar was also attended by elected personnel representatives from the seven non-Nordic countries in Europe where Nordea has operations – that is Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Luxemburg and the UK. Interview with colleagues from these countries will be published on this website.
Liv Haug, Vice President of the NUB, began the seminar by speaking about trade union traditions in the Nordic region.
“We prefer to co-operate. We have a dialogue with the management, the doors are open and they listen. We focus on results in all respects – financially, work environment wise and with regard to the development of employees in order to provide long-term job security.
We also have many years of experience of representation on the Board. The management likes the fact that we are involved and sees that we add value to decisions,” said Liv Haug.
She presented the workings of NUB, after which Michael Hansen of the NUB gave an account of the channels of influence open to the trade unions today (see previous article).
The trade unions have now proposed certain improvements to the agreement on Consultative Committees, for example that it should be possible to co-opt external consultants to the meetings.
Rauni Söderlund, who has been a member of the NUB’s travel team, reported on the autumn tour to the seven non-Nordic countries (see previous article). In all of these countries, with the exception of Poland, there are no trade unions at Nordea.
“For us it is natural to see the trade unions as the employees’ representatives. We represent 80-90 per cent of the personnel at Nordea. Even though we don’t know yet which countries will be included in Nordea SE we would like to strongly encourage employees in other countries to play an active part in ensuring that we have a high level of employee influence,” she said.
The first day ended with presentations by the non-Nordic representatives of the situation in their respective countries and with group work.
Nordea sees obstacles
The second day of the seminar was opened by Per Karlberg of the NFU, who made a detailed presentation of the legislation on European Companies and employee influence. He underlined the fact that it is not permitted to reduce the level of employee influence when a European Company is formed (see also previous articles).
Nils Kruse of the NUB took up the timetable for the conversion into a European Company and noted that there are certain obstacles that must be overcome before Nordea decides to proceed. This applies not least to the issue of deposit guarantees.
This became even clearer when Ole Simonsen of Nordea Group Corporate Law took the stage. “It is true,” he said, “that Nordea would really like to reap the benefits of the simplifications that stem from becoming a European Company.” He also emphasised, however, that Nordea has not yet decided whether to complete the process.
“We aim to become a European Company, but if major problems arise along the way we may decide not to go ahead. Some of the obstacles we see today (for example deposit guarantee schemes and tax regulations) require changes in the EU legislation and this can take time. With a bit of luck we will be able to start the process in the autumn of 2005,” said Simonsen.
Cultural differences
Professor Anne-Marie Søderberg of the Copenhagen Business School began the third day with a presentation on cultural differences and similarities. She is co-author of the book “Merging Across Borders”, which is based on interviews with the Nordea management.
According to Søderberg, we often see other nationalities as stereotypes. She gave several examples of this but also emphasised that these stereotypes do not necessarily tell us the truth about what Swedes or Danes, for example, are really like.
“Some people claim that it is a question of objective differences, but I believe you have to look at the entire situation when these judgements are made.”
She also reminded her audience that a number of power struggles were underway in Nordea when the interviews were conducted, position and status, among other things, were at stake.
“The reason I speak a lot about us-and-them-thinking is that it is important and something that can lead an organisation to collapse.
Instead of focusing on the difficulties you may meet you should see cultural differences as a resource. Think more about why people act the way they do and about how you can try to improve communication. As trade union representatives you have a big responsibility in this respect,” said Anne-Marie Søderberg.
Bengt Rolfer
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