Poll shows support for workplace consultation

A recent poll has shown that eight out of 10 people (82%) believe that companies should be legally required to discuss their closure plans with the workforce. The poll was carried out for the T&G transport union by MORI in response to the announcements of closures at Ford, Vauxhall and Rover, which workers first heard about from the media, rather than from their employer.

Yet the government is still opposing plans for a European directive which would give employees who work for companies with at least 50 workers the right to be consulted (see Labour Research June 2000).

The TUC strongly supports the right for workers to be informed and consulted by their employers, and in December published a detailed report called Don't keep us in the dark. It points out that British workers enjoy few of the rights available to workers in most other EU states and says that there is an urgent need for a directive which guarantees the same rights for all EU workers.

In the UK, although technically there is a right to be consulted in the event of planned redundancies, the TUC points out that there is "no effective sanction". In effect employers can act without consulting in the knowledge that, at most, they will be required to pay a small amount of compensation, but will not have to reconsider the redundancies.

Don't keep us in the dark is available from the TUC website at www.tuc.org.uk