Information and consultation of employees

It's good practice for your employer to let you know what's going on in the business and about any planned future changes. In some cases, there are legal rights for your employer to consult you.

What is information and consultation?

Arrangements to inform and consult mean there's ongoing communication between your employer and their employees. This should involve any important developments that could affect the people who work for the organisation.

Employers should tell staff what's planned - informing - and listen and take into account the views expressed by employees when deciding what to do - consulting.

New rights

New employee rights to be consulted and informed about important workplace issues were introduced in April 2005. These apply to organisations with 100 or more employees and will apply to organisations with 50 or more in April 2008.

The rights aren’t automatic. Unless your employer decides to introduce new arrangements voluntarily, employees have to ask for them. At least 10 per cent of the employees must ask, subject to a minimum of 15 employees and a maximum of 2,500 employees.

Your employer can count part-time employees as full-time when working this out but doesn't have to. If you aren’t sure who counts as an ‘employee’, follow the link below.

A request must be in writing, stating your name and the date on which it was sent. It is also a good idea to sign it. If you want to remain anonymous you can send your request to the Industrial Court in Northern Ireland rather than your employer.

The Industrial Court

If you already have information and consultation arrangements, what happens?

Your workplace may already have arrangements that employees are happy with. In this case, there's no need to make a change. If 40 per cent of staff ask in writing for new arrangements, they must be brought in.

If 10 per cent ask, your employer may hold a staff ballot. If less than 40 per cent vote in favour of the new arrangements, it's likely the existing arrangements will stay in place.

Agreeing new arrangements

If employees make a valid request for new information and consultation arrangements, your employer must get together with employees, or their representatives, to try to reach an agreement on what, how and when employees will be consulted. If an agreement can't be reached after a certain period of time, standard provisions will act as a fallback.

Standard provisions

These standard provisions give rights to be consulted on:

the organisation's recent and likely future economic situation
the current and future employment situation and any threats to jobs
decisions likely to lead to changes to the organisation and employees' contracts (for example, reorganisations, changes to working practices and changes in pay)
Code of Practice on Picketing (Department for Employment and Learning)

Good practice

Because every organisation is different, the new rights allow for flexibility in the way employers can inform you and consult with you. However, your employer should always try to be as open as possible, unless the information is commercially sensitive. There are many ways for your employer to do this, but it will depend on:

what they need to tell you
the size and structure of the organisation
you and your colleagues' usual work practices

For example, information about the company's economic situation could be passed on in small group meetings with departmental managers, or a questionnaire could be sent to staff to find out what employees think about a suggested course of action. Other ways to communicate include:

intranet bulletins
email
team briefings
monthly newsletters
video-conferencing

In larger organisations, it may be helpful to set up a joint consultative committee or staff council, which helps to build trust between your employer and staff representatives. Regular meetings can also help make suggestions more useful and relevant.

Other situations where your employer must consult

When redundancies are planned

Your employer should consult with you before making you redundant. If more than 20 redundancies are planned, they must also consult representatives of those affected.

They must say when the redundancies will happen and explain why they're happening. They must do this early enough for alternative plans to be put forward, like redeployment or retraining, and your employer must consider seriously any alternatives before making a decision.

When a business is transferred

Your employer must also consult you or your representatives if there's going to be a transfer of ownership. They must say:

when it's likely to take place and why
if the new owner plans to take actions that will affect employees and what these are
Employment protection during business transfers and takeovers (TUPE)

When pension changes are proposed

From 6 April 2007, employers with at least 100 employees should consult when they are proposing to make a significant change to a work-based pension scheme. This will apply to employers with 50 or more employees in April 2008. They must provide all affected staff with:

written details of the proposed change, which must be before the start of the consultation
relevant background information
the timescale in which they intend to introduce the change

Your employer may also consult with an employee representative. This could be your trade union representative or information and consultation representative or someone specifically appointed for the purpose. Your employer must allow at least 60 days for the consultation.

Understanding company pensions (pensions and retirement planning section)

When your employer fails to consult you

If your employer hasn't consulted staff, but should have done so, depending on the circumstances there are a number of things you can do.

Information and Consultation of Employee Regulations

If your employer doesn't consult the workforce properly, under the Information and Consultation of Employee Regulations, your representatives (or you) can complain to the Central Arbitration Committee (or Industrial Court).

If the Committee upholds the complaint your representatives (or you) can apply to the the Employment Appeals Tribunal who can order the employer to pay a penalty of up to £75,000.

Redundancy and Transfer of Undertakings Regulations

Where there's a failure to consult collectively with employees in a redundancy situation or a transfer of the business, employees affected (or their representatives) can apply to an Industrial Tribunal for compensation which is known as a 'protective award'.

This doesn't apply if your employer has just failed to consult you individually. If your employer hasn't consulted you individually before making you redundant, this may mean that your redundancy amounts to unfair dismissal.

Pension changes

Where there is a failure to consult with affected employees about relevant pension changes, you or your employee representative can complain to the Pensions Regulator.

Pensions Regulator (contacts section)

Where you can get help?

The Labour Relations Agency (LRA) offers free, confidential and impartial advice on all employment rights issues for residents of Northern Ireland. You can contact the LRA on 028 9032 1442 from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm Monday to Friday.