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Around 20 Nordea employees, mainly from the non-Nordic countries, participated in a training seminar in the Polish town of Spala outside Lodz on 17-19 January. The seminar was part of the ongoing SE -project that aims to establish effective forms for employee influence in all the countries where Nordea has operations.
The seminar was attended by participants from six of the non-Nordic countries – Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany and Luxemburg, while trade union representatives from the Nordic countries made presentations at the seminar.
The models for employee influence vary widely between the different countries. There has long been a well-developed consultation procedure in the Nordic countries. The trade unions there have also jointly formed the Nordea Union Board. In the Baltic countries, on the other hand, there are no trade unions at the bank, nor are there any forms and structures for the exercise of genuine employee influence.
Consultation in Luxemburg
In Luxemburg, the consultation procedure lies somewhere between the levels in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Jan Lange (on the left of the picture) from Nordea in Luxemburg presented an overview of the banking system in the small country with the large number of banks and told the seminar about how contacts between the employers and their employees are handled.
Luxemburg has 440 000 inhabitants. The number of bank employees is 23 000 - or 5 per cent of the entire population! This figure has remained fairly stable during the 2000s, but the number of banks has fallen from over 200 to 156 since the turn of the century.
Nordea has 360 employees in Luxemburg and the workforce increased by 75 employees in 2005. "A dramatic increase", Jan Lange said.
The banks are organised in the Luxembourg Bankers Association (ABBL), which among other things tries to influence legislation in the country. ABBL also signs collective agreements with the three central trade union organisations in Luxemburg.
"There is no law that forces the banks to follow the agreement, but the banks that are affiliated to ABBL usually sign it", said Lange.
The agreements usually run for three years. The latest was drawn up in 2004 and has been signed by approximately 120 banks. The agreement contains regulations on periods of notice, working hours, holidays and other leave, bonus payments and so on.
All employees, for example, have 33.5 holiday days per year, while those who are 50 years old or older have an extra two or three days. Everyone receives an extra monthly salary in December.
At workplaces with more than 15 employees there must be a staff delegation. This is a body for information and consultation. In Nordea's staff delegation there are six employee representatives. Jan Lange is one of them. The members are elected by the employees, not by the trade union. A staff delegation can use up to 24 working hours per week and has meetings with the bank management three times a year or when the need arises.
The Danish model
Søren Kobbernagel (on the right of the picture) from Nordea in Copenhagen spoke about the Danish co-operation model, which unlike the situation in the other Nordic countries is largely based on agreements, not legislation.
"This gives us greater flexibility and different solutions can be adopted in different companies. We can improve almost all legislation by means of agreements," he said.
A precondition for concluding good agreements is that there are strong trade unions. In Denmark, approximately 80 per cent of the bank employees are trade union members. Of the 8 000 employees at Nordea, almost 85 per cent are union members. There are 15 full-time trade union officials at the bank.
"The human resources department believes that the trade union adds value to the bank," Kobbernagel said.
Consultation is organised by means of a number of committees with different areas of responsibility, for example the work environment and pay, each of which is matched by a committee on the employers' side.
The basis for local negotiations is provided by the Finance Union's national collective agreement. The local negotiations are conducted at the bank and provide an opportunity to achieve further improvements.
Per Karlberg of the NFU presented general information on the EU regulations governing information and consultation. He called on the participants to return home with the message that the governments of all the EU member states have strongly underlined the importance of employee influence at the company level.
He noted that the degree of unionisation in the Baltic countries and Poland is low, but also said:
"The most important thing here and now is not how many employees are members of the union, but that you establish forms for exerting influence at your own workplace."
Nordea Union's website
John Vagn Nielsen of the Finance Union in Denmark told the seminar about the Nordea Union's English website. This contains data such as statutes, who's who, information on agreements and so on. It also presents news and provides links to other SE projects, as well as dialogue forums. There are plans to translate some of the material into Polish. Until further notice, the Nordea Union website can be accessed from a link on www.finansforbundet.dk.
Rauni Söderlund of the Nordea Union Board presented the progress of the SE project so far and informed the seminar of the following interesting activities:
- On 1-2 March, there will be a seminar on European Works Councils (EWC) in Denmark with participants from, among others, Nordea, Barclays, Allianz and Danske Bank.
- On 14–15 March, there will be a seminar in Gothenburg for the members of Nordea's Consultative Committees.
- On 20-22 March, the Nordea Union Board will be in Brussels and visit UNI, the European Commission and the European Parliament.
- On 10-11 the Nordea Union will hold its Annual General Meeting in Stockholm.
During the seminar in Spala, group work was also conducted in which the participants drew up strategies and guidelines for the ongoing work.
Bengt Rolfer
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