BDA International
International networks strengthen BDA’s work
BDA’s international work also comprises numerous network activities, from which member federations benefit. This involves not only contacts with sister federations worldwide, bilaterally and via IOE, but also other project-related contacts to address challenges of international personnel policy in the interest of companies.
IOE (International Organisation of Employers) is the global voice of employers. In this capacity, it is increasingly important, since international sectoral trade unions are organising themselves globally in an ever more comprehensive and strategic manner. This can be seen, for instance, in the merger of international sectoral trade unions in the Global Union Federation, whose stated objective is to develop industrial relations on a global scale. The main aim is to achieve greater uniformity in working conditions around the world. With so-called “international framework agreements” concluded between individual companies and international sectoral trade unions, trade unions gain access to companies’ workforces and endeavour to organise them at the national level. Against this background, IOE has a strategic significance for countering these efforts, alongside its role as the voice of employers in ILO. To that end, BDA prompted IOE to set up the Global Industrial Relations Network (GIRN) which is open for multinational undertakings to join. Here they find not only a platform for a specific exchange of experience on international social policy and industrial relations but can also seek advice on concrete problems, specifically with framework agreements.
Closer contacts in the Mediterranean region
BDA practises project-related international cooperation both with many Eastern European countries and also in countries around the Mediterranean Sea. In February 2008 BDA signed a cooperation agreement with the Union of Mediterranean Confederations of Enterprises (UMCE-Businessmed). UMCE-Businessmed represents employer and business federations in the Mediterranean countries of Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. It is in the interest of German businesses to build up contacts in the Mediterranean area and to support stronger links with the EU as part of a sustainable neighbourhood policy. With UMCE, BDA wants to help shape economic and political relations and hence also make a contribution to ensuring peace in the region. Conversely, for the Mediterranean region German business is an important partner within the European Union, above all with a view to the possible creation of a Euro-Mediterranean free-trade area by 2010. Closer cooperation with German business brings the Mediterranean region closer to this goal.
Personnel policy faces major challenges
An example of how these international networks prove their value in practice can be seen in the issue of international mobility of highly skilled workers and managers: completion of the European internal market and globalisation have led to companies becoming ever more active across borders. This also increases the mobility of managers and technical experts. Despite the ongoing growth in intermeshing of the global economy, labour legislation, labour markets and social systems in EU member states are very diverse and are based on essentially different economic and social traditions, to say nothing of legal systems outside the EU. Companies with a global reach can exploit national differences to achieve competitive advantages. On the other hand, management of the interfaces (e.g. access to national expert knowledge) generates considerable costs for companies. BDA follows these issues intensively with companies and has examined on the basis of concrete examples what contribution an adjustment of European rules can make to tackling the challenges faced by companies on the ground. In this regard, bilateral contacts are also used to address concrete problems locally.
Closer contacts in the Mediterranean region
BDA practises project-related international cooperation both with many Eastern European countries and also in countries around the Mediterranean Sea. In February 2008 BDA signed a cooperation agreement with the Union of Mediterranean Confederations of Enterprises (UMCE-Businessmed). UMCE-Businessmed represents employer and business federations in the Mediterranean countries of Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. It is in the interest of German businesses to build up contacts in the Mediterranean area and to support stronger links with the EU as part of a sustainable neighbourhood policy. With UMCE, BDA wants to help shape economic and political relations and hence also make a contribution to ensuring peace in the region. Conversely, for the Mediterranean region German business is an important partner within the European Union, above all with a view to the possible creation of a Euro-Mediterranean free-trade area by 2010. Closer cooperation with German business brings the Mediterranean region closer to this goal.
Personnel policy faces major challenges
An example of how these international networks prove their value in practice can be seen in the issue of international mobility of highly skilled workers and managers: completion of the European internal market and globalisation have led to companies becoming ever more active across borders. This also increases the mobility of managers and technical experts. Despite the ongoing growth in intermeshing of the global economy, labour legislation, labour markets and social systems in EU member states are very diverse and are based on essentially different economic and social traditions, to say nothing of legal systems outside the EU. Companies with a global reach can exploit national differences to achieve competitive advantages. On the other hand, management of the interfaces (e.g. access to national expert knowledge) generates considerable costs for companies. BDA follows these issues intensively with companies and has examined on the basis of concrete examples what contribution an adjustment of European rules can make to tackling the challenges faced by companies on the ground. In this regard, bilateral contacts are also used to address concrete problems locally.
