Information and consultation of employees
The Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 give employees the right, subject to certain conditions, to request that their employer sets up or changes arrangements to inform and consult them about issues in the organisation for which they work.
The Information and Consultation Regulations came into force for organisations with 150 or more employees in 2005. They affected organisations with more than 100 employees from 6th April 2007 and those with more than 50 employees from 6th April 2008.
The law in a nutshell
The Regulations do not impose a set method for employers to inform and consult their employees.
Instead, the requirements are triggered either by a formal, written request for an information and consultation agreement from at least 10% of employees, with a minimum 15 and a maximum of 2,500, or where an employer chooses to start negotiations. In either case the employer will need to make arrangements to allow the employees to elect representatives to negotiate the agreement.
European Works Council
Guidance for employers
If you are an employer and you want to find out how the regulations will affect your business, visit businesslink.gov.uk.
businesslink.gov.uk guidance on information and consultation
Guidance on collective redundancy responsibilities (PDF, 99 Kb)
Guidance for employees and employee representatives
If you are an employee or employee representative and want to find out what your rights are under the regulations, visit Directgov.
Directgov guidance on information and consultation
BIS guidance
Information and Consultation in Action
BIS worked with eleven businesses to produce case studies on how they inform and consulte with employees. The case studies illustrate how information and consultation can work in practice.
Information and consultation case studies
