In the news

European Works Councils

The European Court of Justice has just decided two important points in Gesamtbetriebsrat der Kuhne & Nagel AG & Co KG about setting up European Works Councils.

The first was to do with how to set one up for groups of community-wide undertakings where management is based outside the EU, and which don't have a central system to provide the information necessary for negotiations. The second was to do with the kind of information that is needed for setting one up.

The ECJ said it was the responsibility of the central management's representative within a member state to ensure the right conditions existed for setting up a Council. Other EU-based undertakings belonging to the group are also under an obligation to help provide the information.

As for the information needed, the following could be asked for: 

• average total number of employees and their distribution 
• about the establishment of the group and its constituents 
• about the structure of the group and its constituents 
• names and addresses of appropriate employee representatives.

Dispute resolution regulations

The Government has now published its conclusions on resolving disputes in the workplace, following a consultation on draft regulations. These were based on the framework set out in the Employment Act 2002.

The final regulations will come into effect in October this year and we'll look at them in more detail then. For now, the main conclusions to note are: 

• they will only apply to employees, as opposed to workers 
• grievance will be defined as 'a complaint by an employee about action which his employer has taken or is contemplating taking' 
• the statutory grievance procedure will apply even after the employment has ended 
• if the employee's grievance could be heard in a tribunal, then the time limit goes up to six months once the grievance procedure has been initiated 
• the time limit for presenting a claim to do with dismissal or disciplinary action can be extended, if it looks as though disciplinary procedure would still be going on when the normal time limit expires 
  You can find details of the Government's response at www.dti.gov.uk (PDF file). 
  

EC consultation on working time

The European Commission has announced a consultation on the working time directive, particularly looking at the 'opt out' clause which has proved so controversial.

It has also asked for responses on extending the reference period for calculating average weekly working time; the definition of working time; and measures to improve the balance between work and family life. 
The deadline for comments is 31 March 2004.

You can find the consultation paper at europa.eu.int (PDF file).

Dispute resolution: draft ACAS code

ACAS has published a draft code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. This will replace the existing code and incorporates the statutory and disciplinary procedures set out in the Employment Act 2002.

If you would like to comment on the draft, you should do so by 14 April 2004. 
You can access the draft code at www.acas.org.uk (PDF file).

New compensation limits

From February 2004, a number of new compensation limits came into force:

*There is no limit where the employee is dismissed unfairly or selected for redundancy for reasons connected with health and safety matters or public interest disclosure ('whistleblowing')