Defining who has consultation rights

[ch 6: page 40]

Where arrangements for consultation already exist, they must be used (if no representatives exist they must be elected for the purpose, regulations 13 and 14). If the following representatives are in place, they must be used in the consultation process:

• representatives of an independent recognised trade union;

• elected information and consultation representatives under the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 (ICE); and

• representatives identified in a “pre-existing agreement” (an arrangement defined under the ICE regulations, see next page).

Employees can be consulted directly in accordance with a negotiated or pre-existing agreement as defined under the ICE regulations, depending on how those arrangements have been set up.

An employee who is a representative either under an existing arrangement or one elected for the purpose is “entitled to be permitted by his employer to take reasonable time off during the employee’s working hours in order to perform his functions as such a representative”. The regulations specify that they should work in a spirit of co-operation, “taking into account the interests of both sides”. This is a form of words that appears in the ICE regulations but does not apply to union rep or safety rep facility time.