The duty to provide information to reps

[ch 11: pages 409-410]

The employer must provide reps with “adequate information” for collective consultation. Section 188(4), TULRCA says that the employer must provide the following statutory information in writing:

• reason(s) for the redundancies;

• number and descriptions of employees proposed to be made redundant;

• total number of employees of any description;

• proposed selection procedure;

• proposed method for carrying out redundancy dismissals including timescale;

• proposals for calculating redundancy pay, if it is to exceed the statutory minimum;

• the number of temporary agency workers working for the employer;

• where those agency workers are working; and

• what types of work they are carrying out.

The obligation to produce information about agency workers was added in October 2011 by the Agency Workers Regulations (Schedule 2, AWR). Where redundancies take place in the context of a TUPE transfer, information must cover the use of agency workers across the whole organisation, not just the transferring part, as long as these workers are under the employer’s supervision (UNISON v (1) London Borough of Barnetand (2) NSL Limited Case [2014] UKEAT/0191/13/RN.)