UK has three years to comply with information and consultation rules

Last month the European Union's Council of Ministers adopted the new directive on information and consultation. The directive sets out minimum requirements on employees' rights to information and consultation but leaves it to national governments to draw up the arrangements for making use of these rights.

In broad terms employee representatives have the right to be:

* informed about the "activities and economic situation" of the organisation they work for;

* informed and consulted on the "situation, structure and probable development of employment" as well as any future plans, particularly where jobs are at risk; and

* informed and consulted, with a view to reaching agreement, on decisions likely to lead to substantial changes in work organisation or in contractual relations, including redundancies and transfer. (In these last two cases these rights already exist.)

Governments have three years to implement the directive. The UK and Ireland are the only two EU countries which do not already have national systems of information and consultation meeting most of the requirements of the directive and the UK government has agreed that it will consult widely before legislation is introduced. This formal period of consultation is likely to be preceded by discussions between the TUC and the CBI employers' body but a timescale for this has not yet been agreed.