The European Institute for Industrial Relations (EIAB) was founded 1991 as part of the ‘Association for the Promotion of a European University of Employment (UET)’. The UET, with its base in Paris, considered itself to be a European network with the goal of being a further education platform for employees, employers, unions and associations from all across Europe. The network was considered as to be a contribution to the completion of the European domestic market. The foundation stone was laid for cooperation between different European organisations, all diverse in nature, in the field of further education and social dialogue, through EU promoted projects concerning the causes, methods and consequences of the reorganisation of European consortiums, as well as social dialogue.
Consequently, and as a result of various European activities, EIAB, a non-profit-making association was “born” in the middle of the nineties of last century. Participation in two European projects on the topic of ‘Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)’, for both multinational companies (MNE) small and medium-sized companies (SME), motivated the association to concentrate its current activities on further education and research in the field of sustainable business management.
We offered a further education initiative which qualified employees of SME as “Corporate Sustainability Officers”. The measure was co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF). Through participation in this training, the participants learned that sustainable business management consists of different action fields but that sustainable management has to be understood as a holistic approach. This initiative has been certified by the Hanseatic Certification Agency (HZA).
The aim of this international initiative is also to gain experience. This will put us in a position to share the knowledge gained through European projects and to create awareness of the topic. Exchange of experience is the foundation to firmly establishing sustainable business management in SME on an international scale.
We consider these activities as an important contribution to the corporative and social conditions of the increasingly completed European internal market.
Further work priorities are
- The relationship between employers, employers’ associations, unions, works councils (collective relationships) as well as
- The relationship between employer and employee (individual relationships)
- Socially responsible reorganisation
- European works councils
In 2019/2020 EIAB worked on a publication with the title „Wir tragen Verantwortung für morgen“ (We are responsible for tomorrow) in which 37 SME are presenting their activities in sustainable management. The publication is completed by two scientific articles on Sutsainability in general and on business models for SME.
The book has been published in September 2020 (ISBN 978-3-87820-170-0)
Since 2019 EIAB is part of an Erasmus+ project called SmartSoc = “Education for future ICT Experts on Smart Society needs” which has a duration of three years.
The EIAB was certified by Weiterbildung Hessen e.V. (an institution of further education and training) between 2013 and 2018.
Sponsoring members:
Energieversorgung Offenbach AG (EVO), Offenbach
E-hoch-3_Maike Hora-Meriem Tazir GbR.
Dr. Thomas + Partner GmbH & Co. KG, Karlsruhe
Wilhelm Büchner Hochschule, Darmstadt (Hochschule für Berufstätige Darmstadt GmbH.)
Partner:
Prof. Dr. Klaus-Michael Arend; Member of the board HEAG Holding AG
Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Darmstadt