Call for consultation rights

The Industrial Society is calling on the government to strengthen UK workers' consultation rights by dropping its opposition to the European Union proposals on consultation in companies of 50 or more employees.

A recent report, The silent stakeholders: reforming workplace consultation law, says that with such a law in place "incidents like BMW's treatment of its Rover workforce" would be less likely to occur. It describes the government's opposition as "inconsistent", pointing to the wide body of evidence showing the business benefits of consultation.