personnel
EU employees council
new faces
Implementing rules
Employee elections
UK inclusion
Proactive management
2 What'sNewS Issue 9 September 1998
After all, RI is only one of the Rabobank
units with a presence in several countries
around the continent. Others, of course,
include De I.age Landen, Interpolis and
Nedship. International offices with at
least 20 staff members will be eligible to
elect representatives to a so-called special
negotiating body (SNB). This, in practice,
implies almost every office in the RI
European network -
those in the Benelux,
Ireland, Germany, Spain,
the UK, France, and Italy
will be included in the
first round. If more than
one subsidiary is operat-
ing abroad - for example
if both De Lage Landen
and RI each have a for-
eign office with 30
employees - then the
combined Rabobank
group workforce of 60
will join to elect a single
representative. Dutch operations will
meanwhile elect four representatives:
reflecting the fact that its workforce is
comparatively larger than individual
offices. 'This decision was taken on practi
cal grounds,' explains Flip Goudsmit,
head of human resources. 'The SNB is an
intermediate body with many important
decisions to address. lts structure is there-
fore imperative. If it were too large, it
could prove unworkable.'
Flip Goudsmit, acting on
behalf of employees
Passage of the European Union's (EU) sodal directive
was greeted with a mixture of apprehension and
strong emotions by many employers on the Continent.
But at Rabobank - being a cooperative with a long
tradition of attention to stakeholders' interests and
concerns - the issues raised by this directive are far
more practical than philosophical at root.
The EU employees council
directive, which mandates
employee participation in the cor-
porate decision making process,
represents something of a com-
promise between the somewhat
adversarial tone that characterizes
relations between labour and
management in many Latin coun
tries as well as in the LJK, and the
so-called 'Rhineland Model', in
the Netherlands, Germany,
Belgium and France, where a high
degree of employee consultation is the
order of the day. As approved, the social
charter advocates the 'consensus-building
approach.' It grants employees and man
agement a high degree of autonomy in
how they jointly structure the directive's
actual provisions, provided that substan-
tial progress towards implementation is
made by the end of this year.
Within our own organization, one of the
first fundamental choices was the level at
which to implement the new rules. It has
been decided to do so at the Rabobank
Nederland level - under the responsibility
of the executive board - rather than
within Rabobank International alone.
Elected representatives will together form
the SNB. They will have the important
task of acting on behalf of employees and
negotiating with the executive board on
how we shall organize and structure the
contribution of the employees representa
tives at the European level. We are moving
ahead with implementation at a steady
pace, with elections to the SNB scheduled
in the coming months. The ambition is to
have all representatives elected by
December first, and to hold the SNB's first
meeting before the end of the year.
One of the main outstanding questions -
the role of our UK-based operations - was
recently resolved. As is well known, the
previous government of the UK fiercely
lobbied for the option to opt-out of the a
EU's social charter. The incoming Labour™
administration announced its intent to
subscribe to the directive after all - a key
plank of its election platform, they have
also indicated the social charter will be
implemented by the start of 2000. 'Our
hope had been to include the UK, we are
pleased that the government has decided
to move ahead,' Goudsmit says.
As Goudsmit and others stress, manage
ment intends to be proactive in implemen
tation of the directive. Its actions will be
guided not by the fact that it has a formal
responsibility, but by an underlying philo
sophical commitment to fostering a con-
structive dialogue among all Rabobank
stakeholders. 'Employee consultation is
essential to our health and vitality,' M
Goudsmit says. 'Everyone has a right to
be informed about matters affecting their
working lives. We welcome the formation
of a formal body to exchange clear signals.
We intend to make this work well, not
just because we're obliged to, but because
we feel it is in our mutual best interests.'
Masthead
as head ofderivatives trading. Previous experience
was gained over a six year period with Barclays as
global head of European derivatives between 1991
and 1994 and, prior to that, the USD derivatives book
manager. Norrie hopes to add value to Rabobank's
new investment banking strategy by fully capitalizing
on his own experience with strong rated banks who
pursued a similar client-driven business policy.
He believes global investment banking's success will
depend on strength of the European strategy and
ensuring 'the correct business balance between
Utrecht and London.'
Editorial Staff
Editor in Chief Noor Tania-Stein (Marketing RI)
Managing Editor Anne Lavelle (The Write Company)
Editors David Brown, Samantha Dobson
Production Len Fraser
Editorial Address
Rabobank Nederland, EO 516
P.O.Box 221, 5600 MA Eindhoven
Telephone +31 (0)40 217 50 09
Telefax +31 (0)40 217 71 36
Rabomail whats news@rn.rabobank.nl
Design the write company, Amsterdam
Lithography Zetterij Niek van Dijk, Amsterdam
Printing Drukkerij Cliteur bv, Amsterdam
Please send address changes to the editorial address
Beefing up our investment
banking force is new face,
Peter Norrie, head of
investment banking RI for the
Netherlands branch. No
stranger to Dutch institutions,
Norrie comes directly from
ABN Amro in London where
he was global head of
derivatives trading and
London's regional head of derivatives. Norrie also
spent time working in the Netherlands for ABN Amro
Peter Norrie
