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You, together with other employees, can ask your employer to keep you informed and consult with you on issues related to your company or organisation.

This may include:

• the company or organisation鈥檚 performance, for example financially and competitively
• any changes to your working conditions and employment prospects

This is called an information and consultation agreement.

How to make a request

1. Check that you鈥檙e eligible.

2. Write to your employer or the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) with your request.

To make a request, you need to be an employee of a company or organisation which has both:

• at least 50 employees
• its registered office, head office or main operation in England, Scotland or Wales

There鈥檚 a different process if you work for a , unless both of these apply:

• its head office or registered office is in England, Scotland or Wales
• the majority of its employees work in England, Scotland or Wales

Number of employees needed to take part

Employees can either individually request an arrangement or make a single request as a group.

For the request to be valid the following must apply:

• at least 2% of all the employees in the company or organisation make a request
• at least 15 employees must make the request
• individual requests must be received within a 6 month period to be counted together

Find out the number of employees

You can write to your employer to ask how many people they employ.

You can complain to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) if:

• your employer refuses to provide the number of employees
• you think the number they鈥檝e given you is wrong

Download and fill in the complaint form and send it to the address on the form.

You can either write to:

• your employer to request an arrangement
• the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) - you can do this if you don鈥檛 want your employer to know you鈥檙e making a request

Request direct to your employer

Include the following:

• the date you鈥檙e making the request
• your name and the names of any other employees included in your request

Request through CAC

Email [email protected] with the following:

• the date you鈥檙e making the request
• your name and address
• your employer鈥檚 name and address
• the name of the manager who represents the employer

CAC will tell you and the employer how many requests have been made, without revealing the names of the employees.

Your employer can start negotiating with you straight away if they choose to, regardless of how many employees have applied.

If more than 40% of employees have requested an agreement, your employer must start negotiating with you.

If less than 40% of employees have requested an agreement, your employer can:

• say that there鈥檚 already a pre-existing agreement
• hold an employee ballot to see if they should start negotiations

An employer can dispute the validity of any request.

Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) can be asked to decide if requests are valid and if pre-existing agreements already exist.

Pre-existing agreements

Your employer may say there鈥檚 already an agreement about keeping you informed and consulting you.

A pre-existing agreement is a written explanation of how the employer informs and consults employees or representatives. It must:

• cover all employees
• have been agreed by those employees

Your employer may hold a ballot (a vote) to decide if they should start negotiating.

They must:

• tell you no more than 1 month after they get your request that they鈥檙e going to hold a ballot
• hold the ballot no sooner than 21 days after they tell you about it

Your employer might decide to hold a combined ballot of all employees if there is already an agreement (or more than one agreement) covering other parts of the business in addition to your own.

All employees must be allowed to vote in the ballot and the voting must be done in private.

Results of the ballot

Your employer must start negotiations with you if both these apply:

• at least 40% of employees took part in the ballot
• more than 50% of those voting supported the request for an information and consultation agreement

You cannot request a new agreement for 3 years if the results of the employee ballot do not meet both these requirements.

Complain about a ballot

Download and fill in the relevant complaint form and send it to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) if:

• the employer has not told you that they鈥檙e holding a ballot within 1 month of getting your request - use form 8(7)
• you think the employer is taking too long to hold a ballot after they鈥檝e said they would and 21 days have passed - use form 8(8)
• you believe the ballot was not fair - make the complaint within 21 days of the ballot using form 10(2)

You need to negotiate with your employer when they agree - or the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) instruct them - to set up an agreement.

The terms will need to be agreed and written down by your employer and the employee representatives.

Selection of employee representatives

Your employer must make sure that every employee is represented by at least one representative. They can choose whether this is done by appointing or electing the representatives but all employees have a right to be involved in this process.

Complain to CAC within 21 days of the selection of the representatives if you think your employer has not done this properly.

CAC may tell the employer to rerun the process for appointing or electing representatives.

If negotiations fail

If your employer does not enter negotiations or an agreement cannot be reached then they must give you the following information and consult with you on:

• what the company or organisation is doing, its economic situation and its future prospects
• any changes to employee numbers and organisation, employment prospects, and particularly any threats to jobs within the company or organisation
• decisions that might lead to changes in work organisation or in employment contracts including TUPE transfers and collective redundancies

Complaints when an agreement is in place

Complain to CAC by filling in the relevant form if you believe:

• your employer has not complied with the terms of an agreement
• your employer has made an unreasonable request that you keep information confidential
• that disclosing particular information would harm your business