Which kind of workplaces have rights on employee information and consultation?

In the UK these rights are being phased in over four years, depending on the size of the company or organisation.

• from 6 April 2005 to undertakings with at least 150 employees;
• from 6 April 2007 to those with at least 100; and
• from 6 April 2008 for those with at least 50

As the numbers of employees may well vary over time, the Regulations set out a method for calculating the number of employees. This is the average number of employees employed in each month over the previous 12 months.

Some employers could choose to count part-time employees (those contracted to work 75 hours or less in a month) as half an employee for the purposes of this calculation.

The Regulations apply to public or private undertakings, 'carrying out an economic activity, whether or not operating for gain'. Because of the reference to 'economic activity' the Government believe that some public sector employees (mainly those who work for central government departments) may be excluded from the Regulations, but they have introduced a code of practice to extend the rights to these employees If you are unclear whether you are covered by the Regulations, you should seek advice from your union if you have one.

Even if you work for an undertaking carrying out economic activity and have the required numbers of employees these rights are still not given automatically. Various processes need to be followed to obtain these rights. In particular, groups of employees will need to trigger negotiations with employees.