1. The main areas of the draft Regulations where EEF considers changes need to be made are:
(i) Valid voluntary agreements for information and consultation should be possible at establishment as well as at undertaking level. The current proposal of only allowing undertaking level is too restrictive.
(ii) Draft Regulation 18, which sets out the statutory fallback position for information and consultation procedures if there is no valid voluntary agreement should be more precise about the employment issues that are and are not covered by these information and consultation requirements.
(iii) The relationship of the draft Regulations to other employment legislation about information and consultation, such as collective redundancies and business transfers, should be spelt out clearly in the final Regulations so that it is easy for employers to understand their legal obligations. The draft Regulations are most unclear on this point and the Government has potentially passed all the risks onto employers.
If the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) rather than Employment Tribunals are to deal with the enforcement of these Regulations, the CAC should have clear rules of procedure about how to handle cases and the existing membership of the CAC should be reviewed so that it includes individuals with practical experience of information and consultation arrangements in non-unionised organisations. It is also important that the CAC’s work about information and consultation