European works councils for the UK

The UK government has taken the last steps to extend the European works council directive fully to the UK. Last month it laid the appropriate regulations before parliament and they come into effect on 15 January.

Many companies, based and operating in the UK, were already covered by the directive, which requires companies employing 1,000 or more in at least two European countries to set up European works councils in certain circumstances (see December 1999 Labour Research, page 21). But the new regulations bring around 200 more companies into the net because UK employees must be counted in these totals for the first time. They also ensure that UK employees can no longer be legally excluded from the process of setting them up.

As suggested last month, the regulations as finally published differ in important respects from those published in July.