The Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations (ICE) in the UK establish a general statutory framework giving employees a right to be informed and consulted by their employers over a range of business, employment and restructuring issues (Hall, 2005). The legislation, established in 2005, was implemented over three years, and stems from the EU Information and Consultation Directive introduced in 2002. The legislation has applied since April 2005 to large undertakings with at least 150 employees, since April 2007 to those undertakings with at least 100 employees, and since April 2008 to companies with at least 50 employees. The Regulations diverge from the EU Information and Consultation Directive (2002) by providing considerable flexibility for employers in their response and therefore enabling the adoption of information and consultation arrangements that are organisation-specific.There has been increased research evaluating the impact of the Regulations and of management's approach to information and consultation in the UK (see, for example, Hall, 2005; Hall et al., 2007, 2009; Gollan and Wikinson, 2007; Wilkinson et al., 2007).

Questions

In light of the introduction of the ICE Regulations (2005) in the UK, consider the following questions:

1 Why might employees value information and consultation that is imposed by legislation?

2 What are the benefits for organisations of informing and consulting employees?

3 What factors are likely to influence a company's strategy towards information and consultation in the workplace?