Research and Information
Key themes - Employee Consultation
The Information and Consultation of Employees (I&C) Regulations 2004 came into force on 6 April 2005, implementing the the EU information and consultation Directive 2002/14/EC (2002) in the UK.
Click here for a summary of the Irish Employees' (Provision of Information and Consultation) Act 2006, which implements the I&C Directive in the Republic.
The Information and Consultation Directive was adopted by the European Parliament on 5 February 2002 and by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament on 18 February 2002. The final text was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities on 23 March 2002.
For the first time in the UK, they established a general framework setting out the minimum rights of employees to information and consultation about the organisations that they work for, including a range of business, employment and restructuring issues.
Implementing the Information and consultation of Employees RegulationsThe Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) initially produced a discussion paper published in July 2002. This followed discussions between the CBI and TUC which led to an agreed 'outline scheme' setting out a framework for implementing the Directive. This was published with draft regulations in a consultation document during July 2003.
Click here to read the IPA's response to the DTI, published in December 2003
Revised draft regulations were published in July 2004 taking account of responses to the consultation, together with draft guidance explaining the legislation. Comments on the draft guidance were invited and the DTI also commissioned the IPA to undertake a pilot of the guidance involving almost 100 organisations.
Useful links:
- Click here to view Directive 2002/14/EC on informing and consulting employees.
- To view the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 click here.
- To view an IPA summary guide to the UK Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations (2004) click here.
To view the DTI's full guidance (dated January 2005) on the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 click here.
- To view a summary of the Employees' (Provision of Information and Consultation) Act 2006 which applies to the Republic of Ireland, click here.
Key facts:
- The information and consultation regulations will apply to 24,885 medium sized undertakings, employing between 50 and 149 people and 13,295 large undertakings, employing over 150 people.
- 97% of firms in the UK employ less than 50 employees, and so will not come within the scope of the information and consultation Regulations.
- Employers will not be required to have information and consultation arrangements in place on the date that the Regulations apply.
- Existing arrangements will have to meet specific criteria to count as a valid pre-existing agreement.
- Employees will find it much harder to initiate negotiations in undertakings with pre-existing arrangements, than those without.
- Where employees trigger negotiations, enforcement mechanisms involving the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) and the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) will become active.
- Negotiated agreements may provide for 'direct' forms of information and consultation rather than with representatives.
- Employees or their employers may not change negotiated arrangements for three years.
According to the government, the financial benefits of implementing the information and consultation regulations "are in the order of magnitude of hundreds of millions".
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