right to bargaining information

Information covered

The union is entitled to information if all the following conditions are met:

• the information relates to the company's business and is in the possession of the company or an associated employer (employers are associated if one is a company that is controlled by the other or both are companies that are controlled by a third party, so companies in the same corporate group are likely to be associated employers);
• the information relates to issues and categories of workers covered by the company's recognition agreement with the union;
• the union would be impeded in the bargaining process if it did not have the information;
• it would be good industrial relations practice for the company to disclose it; and
• the information is not covered by one of the exclusions set out below (excluded information ).

Code of Practice

There is a Code of Practice ( Collective bargaining links ) that gives guidance on what information should be disclosed, and the Central Arbitration Committee takes this Code into account when deciding whether the employer has met its legal obligations. The Code states that it would be good industrial relations practice for an employer to give the union any information that would influence the way in which it formulated, presented or pursued its claim, or how it reached agreement at the end of the negotiations.

As the Code points out, the information that is relevant to collective bargaining depends on the subject matter of the negotiations and the level at which they are carried out. The Code gives some examples of information that could potentially be relevant. Information on pay and benefits, it suggests, could include:

• the principles and structure of payment systems;
• job evaluation systems and grading criteria; and
• earnings and hours analysed according to work-group, grade, plant, sex, out-workers and home-workers, department or division.

The Code suggests that relevant financial information could include:

• gross and net profits;
• sources of earnings;
• assets;
• liabilities and allocation of profits.

When supplying information, the company is not obliged to let the union see or have a copy of the original documents from which the information may have been compiled. Nor does the company have to provide information if compiling or assembling it would involve effort or expense out of reasonable proportion to its value to the union in negotiations . The Data Protection Code (code of practice ) advises employers to ensure that, when supplying a union with information on staffing in the course of bargaining, individual workers are not identified: aggregated or statistical information should suffice.

Excluded information

A company does not have to disclose information if any of the following circumstances apply:

1. Disclosing the information would substantially damage the employer's business for some reason other than its effect on collective bargaining, such as loss of customers or damage to the company's ability to raise funds. The Code of Practice gives these examples of information that might cause substantial damage if disclosed:
   – cost information on individual products;
   – detailed analysis of proposed investment, marketing or pricing policies;
   – price quotas or the make-up of tender prices
2. The company received the information in confidence
3. The information relates specifically to an individual and the individual has not consented to its disclosure.
4. The company obtained the information for the purpose of legal proceedings.
5. Disclosing the information would be against the interests of national security.
6. Disclosing the information would involve the company breaking a prohibition imposed on it by legislation.