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The Law

  • New UK laws requiring you to inform and consult your employees on business issues came into force on 6th April 2005, initially applying only to firms with 150 or more employees.
  • Since April 2007 they have applied to businesses with 100 or more employees.
  • From April 2008 they will apply to all businesses with 50 or more employees.
  • As few as 15 of your employees could require you to set up a permanent information and consultation forum.
  • You can comply with the law and keep control of your communications at the same time by pro-actively adopting consultation arrangements that suit your own circumstances.
  • Fortunately, the law does not impose a “one-size-fits-all” approach. It gives a lot of flexibility. You don’t have to set up a consultation forum or committee if you don’t want one. You can inform and consult your employees DIRECTLY using a variety of methods.

What if I already have consultation arrangements?

You can make them compliant with the law and protect them from being overturned by setting them out in a document. This doesn't mean they'll be set in concrete, but once you've done it, the legislation makes it difficult for a small group of employees to force you to make changes.

Am I covered by this law?

If you have 100 or more employees in the UK (50 or more from April 2008), and you carry out an "economic activity" (which has a very wide meaning), then YES you will be. This includes subsidiaries or branches of overseas firms. Companies, partnerships, charities, public sector bodies - they're all covered.

When calculating if you have 100+ (or 50+) employees, you can count part-time employees as half an employee if they work 75 hours or less a month.

What are my options?

You have several options .…Click here.



A bit more detail on the law

The Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 - also known as the ICE Regulations - implement an EC Directive (of course!). The new laws came into force in April 2005, but initially only applied to employers with 150 or more UK employees. From 6th April 2007 they applied to employers with 100 or more employees. In April 2008 they will apply to employers with 50 or more employees. They will not apply to employers with less than 50 employees.

The Regulations allow employees to ask their employer to set up permanent arrangements for informing and consulting them about developments in the business, such as restructuring, plans for employment, and changes in work organisation. In fact the scope of what consultation must cover is potentially very wide.

You will have to set up new consultation arrangements if you are asked by just 10% of your workforce (subject to a minimum of 15 employees). But there is a big incentive not to wait to be asked. As an employer, you can keep control of this process – and of your internal communications – by being proactive. You need to:

  • set out in writing the arrangements you have, or intend to set up, to inform and consult employees. They do not have to involve setting up a works council or consultation forum, unless you want to. You can inform and consult directly with your employees. But there has to be an element of two-way communication
  • make sure your arrangements cover all your UK employees;
  • obtain employee support for what you are doing. There are a number of ways you can do this. It doesn't have to involve a formal ballot. See FAQ.

Many employers in the UK have already done this. This is because the law says if you have a "pre-existing agreement" that meets certain standards, then any demand from 10% of your employees for something different would have to be endorsed by the rest of the workforce. To be precise - 40% of your employees would have to support the demand for something different in a ballot, plus a majority of those voting. This is a big hurdle, and shows the benefit of getting a pre-existing agreement in place sooner rather than later.

If you get a request from 10% of your employees, and you don't have a pre-existing agreement in place, you must negotiate a formal information and consultation agreement that establishes permanent and on-going consultation structures. The agreement will be legally binding - if you don't inform and consult in the way set out in the agreement, you will be liable to a fine from the Employment Appeal Tribunal of up to £75,000.