In these departments the foreman, appointed by the management, has given way to a contact person, elected by the group of workers itself. The contact person keeps track of what the production manager, planners, engineers and buyers are doing. He (or she) informs the group of what is going on.

The rights and the competence of the group include the following:

*The group takes its own decisions in joint council.

*There has to be cooperation with all parties involved.

*Work supervision and planning is decided by the group.

*The group plans the job rotation within the department.

*The group decides on temporary overtime and can also give some time off. Leave of absence is given by the production manager.

*The group can give the group members a certain education and can also develop its own work methods to a certain extent.

*The group itself appoints a formal contact person.

*The group is collectively responsible for its commitments.

*Consultation with the production manager is to take place when there are production problems which jeopardize monthly deliveries or other plans made.

This is not exactly what the union wanted, but it is a compromise reached in negotiations.

Production planning is primarily done by informal contacts between the production manager, the planning department and the contact people in the various groups. the contact people must approve the production schedule which is drawn up by the planning department.

If unusual orders come up, if overtime seems to be necessary, the group involved must always be contacted before the production schedule is made up. And since the groups have the best knowledge of the actual situation they are sometimes contacted before an order is accepted.

Once this led to the employees accepting an order which the management was prepared to turn down. The groups redistributed work among themselves and made room for this order so as not to risk losing an interesting market.