In brief...: Talk to your staff or risk £75,000 fine

Apr 11 2008 By Greig Cameron

Employers are being urged to think about better ways of communicating with staff to avoid large fines.

From this week the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations (ICE) 2004 will apply to employers with 50 or more people working for them.

The legislation came into force in 2005 but only applied to businesses which had more than 150 workers.

Now smaller firms will also have to comply with the regulations or risk fines of up to £75,000 if they ignore requests to set up information and consultation committees at work.

According to law firm Thorntons, an ICE agreement is negotiated by employee representatives and can be similar to a trade union agreement.

Even if there is a valid request and no agreement can be reached certain default conditions for ICE still apply.

These basic provisions mean an employer must inform the workforce of developments in the business's activities and economic situation, the structure and development of employment and changes arising from collective redundancies.