Defining information and consultation rights

The Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 (ICE) apply to businesses with 50 or more employees. Subject to certain conditions, they give representatives the right to negotiate information and consultation arrangements and to be informed and consulted on issues in the organisation.

Under Regulations 27 and 28, the employees’ representatives are entitled to take a reasonable amount of paid time off to perform their duties, and to be paid an appropriate hourly rate. A survey by the Labour Research Department asking union reps about facility time found that a quarter of respondents had ICE reps carrying out union activities/duties in work time.

There is a potential overlap between the ICE regulations and separate legal duties to inform and consult over redundancies, business transfers or pension changes (see above). Where the employer is subject to two different legal requirements they can be relieved of the duty to consult on these issues under the ICE regulations.