Do you need a Works Council?

Does your business have more than 150 employees? If so, new regulations coming into force on 1 April next year mean that you might need one. The Information and Consultation of Employee Regulations 2003 put into place rules allowing your staff to ask you to set one up and requiring you to consult them about key business decisions.

Sound like a lot of trouble? Verity Slater, Employment Expert at Follett Stock believes it will be, unless businesses take steps before April 2005 to get ready.

Verity said “if businesses with more than 150 staff do not prepare for the new regulations, they may receive a request in April 2005 from their staff for a Works Council. If the request is from more than 10% of the workforce, the business has to set up a suitable system for consultation within a short period of time. If the business cannot get its staff to consent to a system that suits its needs, or if the request is ignored, the business will automatically be bound by the strict statutory procedure. This is a very costly and inflexible as contains strict rules on when consultation should take place, who with and the spirit in which it must take place”. Is this European legislation gone mad?

Probably, but there are steps that businesses can take now in order to reduce the effect of the new rules. Most businesses will have some kind of system in place in which they pass on information to employees and listen to their views on how things could be improved. It may be enough in some cases, to make these arrangements more formal. Failure to do anything can however result in businesses being fined by the Central Arbitration Committee.

Follett Stock are running a series of breakfast workshops concentrating on the key steps required when considering what consultation arrangements should be put into place. The message being given out by The Business Solicitors is ‘control your works council before they control you’.

If you require further information please do not hesitate to contact Verity Slater of Follett Stock.