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