Unite wins landmark I&C ruling

Unite has won crucial support in a case against the giant Macmillan publishing group for failing to provide employees with information under the Information and Consultation legislation introduced last April. The significance of the case is that unions now have far more access to information about an employer’s undertakings than previously thought. The Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) decision means that unions will have increased powers to demand company information from Employers to trigger Information and Consultation and will also aid union organising initiatives. Unite is currently running a campaign to ensure workers at the publishing company win decent rights to Information & Consultation and to recruit more members within the group.

 

Unite AGS Tony Burke said, "Unite has won a breakthrough ruling that will give employees more rights to information at work. Employers will now have to cooperate fully with unions and employees who are seeking to trigger Information and Consultation. Unite is the first union to win a ruling of this kind from the CAC."

 

The CAC ruled in favour of Unite, concerning a complaint submitted on 29th November 2005. On August 4th 2005 employees submitted an "employee request" with a view to initiating negotiations to reach a negotiated information and consultation agreement under the regulations. The union requested data on the, "average number of employees employed within the undertaking in the UK over the past twelve months and to ascertain which sites, establishments or plants were considered to be part of the undertaking." The information was requested in order to trigger the Information & Consultation mechanism. Signatures from 10% of employees are needed to trigger a ballot.

 

No reply was received from the employer. On 5th September the union submitted a complaint. On the 14th September the CAC wrote to Macmillan’s asking it to provide the union with the information. On the 20th September the employer wrote to the union as follows; The Company employs 1350 staff in the UK of whom 1232 are full time employees and 118 are part time. The union on the 23rd requested from the employer information regarding: What plants, sites and establishments you consider to be part of the undertaking and the numbers employed in each undertaking. On 14th December, the employer stated that it did believe it was required to supply the data requested by the union. The union made a further complaint to the CAC, who ruled that the union's request for the data was well founded and the employer’s information was incomplete. The employer must reveal the data that the union has requested.