Information and consultation at work: electing staff representatives for redundancy and transfers

Section 4 of the Personnel Today Management Resources one stop guide on information and consultation at work. Other sections.

Election process

The process for the election of employee representatives is the same in relation to both collective redundancies and business transfers.

Where an employer does not have a recognised a trade union and/or does not have an existing body of employee representatives with whom to consult, it will need to arrange for representatives to be elected. The box on election of non-union employee representatives sets out the key points that an employer will have to bear in mind in arranging for elections to take place.

An employer must invite employees to elect representatives long enough before the time when the employer is required to give information to employees. This allows employees to elect their representatives by that time. A long enough period should be allowed for employees to put themselves forward as candidates. It would be advisable for this to be at least seven days.

At least seven days' notification should be given of the ballot. The election could take place on a single day. Ballot papers could be made available at the workplace, or sent to employees.

Consideration should be given to the way in which voting will take place. There is no reason why balloting should not take place at the workplace and appropriate facilities should be provided for the ballot. Consideration should also be given to making facilities available to employees who cannot be present to enable them to vote.

Employers may wish to involve an impartial third party in the process, such as the Electoral Reform Society. However, this may cause delay and unnecessary complication where the number of employees affected is relatively small.

Failure of employees to elect

If employees fail to elect representatives after being invited to do so, the employer must give each affected employee the information that it would have had to give to the representatives.

SAMPLE LETTER INVITING EMPLOYEES TO ELECT REPRESENTATIVES

Dear Employee

As you know, the Company is currently considering a proposal to sell its hair products business.

We are required to inform and consult employee representatives of the affected employees. The purpose of this letter is to invite employees to elect representatives.

In order to ensure that all employees are adequately represented the following number of representatives should be elected:

Sales: 1 representative

S&A: 1 representative

R&D: 1 representative

The role of employee representatives is to represent the views of their colleagues and to explain the stages reached by the Company on the proposal to sell the business. Representatives will need to meet with management on a regular basis, probably about once a week.

Representatives will be kept informed of the Company's plans in connection with the proposed sale of the business. The Company will provide sufficient time and opportunity for elected representatives to meet with management and work colleagues. The Company will also allocate a suitable place for any meetings, which may be necessary and provide any equipment the representatives might need to carry out their role.

At this stage, it is difficult to anticipate the full scope of the role of representatives as the Company does not yet know the extent to which employees may be affected by the plans of any potential purchaser. However, any candidate should understand that there may be an impact on their private time for which they will not be paid.

All representatives will be elected from volunteers who are employees of the Company.

Enclosed with this letter is a form to be completed by any employee who wishes to stand for election. It should be returned to John Smith in HR by the end of the day on 9 September 2004. If more than one candidate volunteers in respect of any of the categories, it will be necessary for the employees of that category to elect one representative from the available candidates. A list of candidates, by category will be notified on 11 September 2004 and voting slips will be available from that time.

All voting slips must be returned to John Smith by 26 September 2004. The voting slips and votes will be counted by John Smith and Jayne Hatter on 27 September, supervised by the Electoral Reform Society.

A list of all elected representatives will be sent to all employees on 29 September 2004.

signed,

The Management