Employment: Changes to European Works Council regulations

January 4, 2010

The Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees (Amendment) Regulations 2010 (“TICE”)  amending the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 1999 (the “1999 Regulations”) in order to bring them into line with the recast 2009 European Works Council Directive (the “Directive”) in the UK, were put before Parliament on 6 April 2010.  The majority of the amendments are expected to come into force on 5 June 2011

The changes will be of relevance to UK based multinational companies which have either at least 1,000 employees in the European Economic Area (EEA) and at least 150 employees in a minimum of two other member states or are part of a group of companies which have at least 1,000 employees in the EEA and a minimum of two “group undertakings” with 150 employees each in any of the other member states.  (When the Agency Worker Regulations 2010 come into force on 1 October 2011 agency workers will be included in calculating the threshold numbers of employees for the agency that they are contracted to work for).

Transnational consultation agreements that were in place before the current regulations were implemented in 1999 will continue to be allowed to operate outside the scope of TICE, while agreements created or amended between 5 June 2009 and 4 June 2011 will (with limited exceptions) be allowed to continue to operate under the regime established by the 1999 regulations.

The main changes are as follows:

Commentary

Affected employers should note the revisions to the Regulations and if necessary seek to take advantage of the “grandfathering” provisions to make amendments to existing arrangements prior to 5 June 2011.

Resources

Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees (Amendment) Regulations 2010 (SI 2010/1088)

Government response to consultation April 2010

Department for Business Innovation and Skills guidance April 2010

For further information or to discuss the issues raised, please contact Guy Abbiss on +44 (0) 203 051 5711.

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