Many employee representatives are involved with consultation. Some consultation representatives have legal rights to help them carry out their duties.
This advice is about the rights of non-union employee representatives.
You can also read our advice on the rights of trade union representatives.
What consultation is
Consultation is when an employer:
- talks about organisational changes that affect workers
- listens to the views of workers and representatives
The aim is to work together to reach agreement.
Some employee representatives have specific roles to consult on TUPE transfers, collective redundancy or pensions. Others are involved with ongoing consultation.
Subject-specific consultation roles
These consultation roles are specifically related to TUPE transfers, collective redundancy or pensions.
These roles can involve a large amount of complex work over many months. The role often ends after consultation and information sharing has ended.
TUPE representatives
This role exists when there's a TUPE transfer and an employer does not have a recognised trade union. If there's a trade union, this role must be done by a trade union representative.
A TUPE representative has a legal right to:
- paid time off for certain duties
- paid time off for relevant training
- access to facilities to carry out certain duties
- protection from dismissal and detriment for carrying out representative duties and activities
These rights apply when an employer needs to inform and consult on TUPE transfers.
Find out more about TUPE informing and consulting
Collective redundancy representatives
This role exists when there's a collective redundancy and an employer does not have a recognised trade union. If there's a trade union, this role must be done by a trade union representative.
A collective redundancy representative has a legal right to:
- paid time off for certain duties
- paid time off for relevant training
- access to facilities to carry out certain duties
- protection against dismissal and detriment for carrying out representative duties and activities
Find out more about collective redundancy
Pension representatives
Pension representatives are elected to consult over changes to pension arrangements.
A pension representative has a legal right to:
- paid time off for certain duties
- protection from dismissal and detriment for carrying out representative duties and activities
The law that covers this is the Occupational and Personal Pension Scheme (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006.
Ongoing consultation roles
Representatives in ongoing consultation roles are usually elected by other workers.
Sometimes they're appointed by management. However, this is not good practice. It's best to set up a fair process for workers to be elected. This will help improve trust.
Information and consultation representatives
Information and consultation representatives attend meetings of consultation groups, representing workers' views.
Legal rights only apply when a consultation group is set up under the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004. These regulations are known as ICE.
A representative has legal rights when they need time for:
negotiations around setting up an information and consultation body – often called works councils or workplace forums
duties relating to being a member of an information and consultation body – for example attending meetings, communicating with workers or consulting on ICE agreements
An employee representative in this role has a legal right to:
- paid time off for certain duties
- protection from dismissal and detriment for carrying out representative duties and activities
Employee representatives in this role do not have a legal right to paid time off for training. However, it's good practice for an employer to consider allowing this.
Employee representatives sometimes work alongside trade union representatives in workplace forums. Joint training can be helpful.
Employee representatives involved in European consultative bodies
This applies to employee representatives who are members of European consultative bodies set up before the UK left the EU. For example, European Works Councils.
An employee representative with this role has a legal right to:
- paid time off for certain duties
- paid time off for relevant training
- protection from dismissal and detriment for carrying out representative duties and activities
The legal rights do not apply to European bodies set up after the UK left the EU. However, employers should still consider allowing representatives paid time off for this work.
Employee representatives in other workplace forums
An employer might choose to set up a workplace forum that's not covered by the ICE regulations. This can help the employer to consult with workers and improve communications.
Employee representatives can be elected or appointed as forum members.
Employee representatives in these forums do not have a legal right to time off, training or facilities.
However, it's good practice for an employer to allow all representatives reasonable time away from their usual work. This applies even if they do not have the legal right. This will help them to carry out their employee representative role effectively.
Find out more about workplace forums
More about the legal rights
Find out more about the rights mentioned in each section:
Get more advice and support
Find out more about consulting employees and representatives
Employers can get Acas tailored support. This can include:
- in-company training on topics including the role of employee representatives
- support with setting up workplace forums