Works councils: Deemed central management obliged to obtain information

In Gesamtbetriebsrat der Kühne & Nagel AG & Co KG v Kühne & Nagel AG & Co KG, the ECJ holds:

• Articles 4(1) and 11(1) of the European Works Councils Directive require that where the central management of a Community-scale group of undertakings is not located in one of the EU member states, the responsibility for providing the employees' representatives with the information essential to the opening of negotiations for the establishment of a European Works Council lies with the deemed central management, that is, the management of the undertaking employing the greatest number of employees in any member state.
• Where the central management does not make this information available to the deemed central management, the latter, in order to be able to fulfil its obligation to provide such information, must request this from the group's other undertakings that are located in the member states. The management of each of those undertakings is obliged to supply the deemed central management with this information.
• The member states in which these other undertakings are located must ensure that their management supplies the information to the deemed central management.