Workers’ Representation

A good and open relationship to trade unions and workers' representatives is important to us. This is because putting labor and management relations on a partnership footing as well as promoting close cooperation is an integral part of our day-to-day business and corporate culture.

The Groups Works Council plays a key role in this context. It represents the interests of E.ON employees in Germany. It currently consists of 26 members who are delegated from E.ON's German companies. There are also general workers’ councils in the German market units and regional workers' councils in the business units.

The Groups Works Council based in Düsseldorf is responsible for dealing with matters which concern the group or several group companies. However, the council represents a link between employer and employees. In this respect it is an information source available to employees who need help and advice on the rapid processes of change taking place within the group. In 2006 Hans Prüfer was elected as chairman of the Groups Works Council.

Representatives of the Groups Works Council are part of all the major bodies of our CR structure, like our CR Council for example. In 2006 the Groups Works Council made a detailed statement on the group's CR activities. It welcomed E.ON's activities and promised constructive cooperation in this area.

As a national body, the Groups Works Council can only exercise its rights in Germany. This is where E.ON European Works Council comes in. It forges links between the workers’ representatives in the other European countries in which we operate. The E.ON European Works Council has the right to be heard and kept informed. In this respect, we regularly inform the European Works Council of the group’s development as well as its CR activities. The body meets twice a year. The composition of the European Works Council follows a formula in which all market units and countries are incorporated fairly. Every country where E.ON has a workforce of at least 500 may put forward one representative for the European Works Council. A maximum of three representatives per country is allowed. For the first time, a woman is head of the European Works Council. At the beginning of 2007, Gabriele Gratz from E.ON Ruhrgas was elected to be the new chair of the European Works Council.

In November 2007, the second Comprehensive Works Council Conference of the Groups Works Council of E.ON Energie was held in Berlin. The focus was on numerous groupwide changes. Members of the Board of Management explained the strategic significance of these improvements to approximately 900 works council members and numerous other employees from HR departments within the group. The key message of the event: employers and works councils have to pull together in order to meet the challenges facing the group.