GFG improves labour dialogue in Europe

GFG Alliance has created a European Works Council (EWC) in an effort to improve its social dialogue with trade unions across Europe, Kallanish learns from the company.

After negotiations with European employee representatives, executive chairman Sanjeev Gupta and GFG’s chief HR officer Denise Timns signed the GFG Alliance European Works Council Agreement. The EWC Council will be composed by representatives of more than 18,000 GFG Alliance employees in 10 European countries, including the UK and North Macedonia, and will meet twice per year.

“The agreement has been developed, facilitated by IndustriAll Europe, to be in line with the European Directive 2009/38/EC of the European Parliament and its transposition into Czech Labour Code nb 262/2006 CL. It is also in the spirit of the European Commission’s Community Charter of the Fundamental Rights of Workers. It will be available in eight languages (Czech, Dutch, English, French, Italian, North Macedonian, Polish and Romanian) to ensure it is accessible to employees across all of GFG’s European businesses,” the steelmaker says in a note.

The company is undergoing financial scrutiny in France and the UK. While the Paris tribunal is investigating the company for misuse of corporate assets and money laundry, in the UK MPs have issued a damning report on GFG governance. The Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee report says a number of high-risk financial practices were used by GFG Alliance and Greensill Capital that are at odds with the requirements of any future steel sector deal. An audit performed on Liberty Steel UK by King & King also found risks to the businesses including a lack of capacity to complete audits effectively (see Kallanish passim).

Natalia Capra France