We encourage dialogue and open employee relations.
We believe in engaging our workforce and try to ensure our employees are fully involved in all matters that affect them.
Telefónica O2 Europe operates a European Works Council (EWC), which brings representatives together at least twice a year to discuss business plans and strategies, and to consider the implications for our people of developments in the markets where we operate.
With the EWC, O2 operates a range of employee forums, where representatives can learn about and discuss Company matters with senior management. We also recognise trade unions for collective bargaining.
We respect people's rights to belong to a trade union, and our Employee Relations team works with unions in the UK to build respectful two-way relationships.
In the UK and the Isle of Man O2 recognises two trade unions - Connect and the Communications Worker Union (CWU). They have collective representation - Connect negotiates on behalf of managers and CWU on behalf of all non-managers.
During the latest pay review in the UK, we reached agreement on a pay deal that was aligned with our position in the market and our strategy of linking pay with performance. Negotiations were completed on time with the Communications Workers' Union and the management union Connect.
We also welcomed colleagues to the business through our acquisition of The Link retail stores.
In Germany, the integration of a new broadband business, tough competition in the marketplace and a major restructure of our internal operations proved unsettling. However, the reorganisation was completed in 2006 with strong participation from our employees in the planning stages.
We aim to conform to the relevant legislation regarding minimum notice periods and we aim to comply with all legislation on consultation concerning redundancies. During 2006 we had 943 redundancies across our operations, including the consolidation of our fixed-line and mobile businesses in the Czech Republic.
We aim to improve employee relations by providing the best information we can about how the business is managed to benefit our customers, employees, shareholders and local communities.
