Opinions on ICE - from heated to lukewarm
IRS Employment Review presents a range of views on the impact of the new information and consultation Regulations.
We know that good communication with employees is
one of the key elements to successful employment relations. Organisations should
see these new Regulations as an opportunity to ensure their arrangements for
informing and consulting employees suit their workplace. Firms that do not have
any existing arrangements will need to consider what they need to do to comply
with the law, but companies with arrangements in place should look to see if
they can improve them. Directors or their equivalent often assume that managers
are already fully catered for. But many line managers are not involved in the
development of key decisions and even very senior managers may feel that their
voice is not properly being heard. A failure to involve managers can undermine
the best laid plans for informing and consulting with employees in
general.
Rita Donaghy, chair, Acas
These new
changes from Europe mean that employees now have a right to be told what's going
on and a right to be heard. It should put a stop to the bolts from the blue
where in the past staff heard their jobs were to be axed via text messages or by
listening to the local radio. Well-run, successful companies have been informing
and consulting their employees for years. Sensible employers know only too well
the competitive edge that comes from helping staff feel more valued and involved
in the running of their firm or organisation. Only bad managers who insist on
keeping their staff in the dark have anything to fear. Information and
consultation provides unions with a golden opportunity to increase their
presence in workplaces, particularly those where there are union members but
where the boss has until now been refusing to engage collectively with
staff.
Brendan Barber, general secretary, TUC
These new
rules will be irrelevant to most companies because they already have systems
that employees are happy with for discussing developments with them. Few
employers have to be told it is good business practice to make sure staff know
what is going on and they don't need legislation to make them do it. The rules
rightly avoid imposing costly, one-size-fits-all structures on companies when
they are not wanted. They only kick in if negotiations on how employees should
be involved in the business fail. In reality it will rarely come to that. And
they won't allow a vociferous minority of employees to upset existing
arrangements or hand new power to unions when that isn't supported by the bulk
of the workforce. I sincerely hope that unions don't think they can play the old
game of using well-intentioned legislation to grab more power, to the detriment
of efficient businesses.
Sir Digby Jones, director general, CBI
Amicus
has taken a very positive view of the legislation, which we believe will change
the industrial relations landscape in the UK for the better. We have already
agreed a model national agreement with the British Printing Industry Federation,
which we will be using as the basis for our campaign across the printing sector,
and we have also reached a good information and consultation agreement with the
bank note printer De La Rue. Unfortunately, we have been concerned that some
companies are attempting to implement company practices that fall short of the
new legislation and that do not involve our trade union company representatives
as is required by the law.
Tony Burke, assistant general secretary,
Amicus
We have
been inundated with calls and letters from Marks & Spencer (M&S) staff
across the UK who want union involvement in the business. Staff are particularly
concerned that the company's internal communication forum - known as the
Business Involvement Group (BIG) - is failing to address the concerns of
employees. We are not knocking the company, but pointing out that an independent
consultation process is in the best commercial interests of M&S. People
seconded to BIG may have no real experience of complex employment or contractual
law and we can provide that expertise as we do with other major
retailers.
John Gorle, national officer, Usdaw