ABSTRACT

EC Directives on matters of employment tend to provide for worker involvement, through consultation or other means of participation. By the 1990s it had become apparent that the British 1970s system of giving rights to recognised trade unions did not meet the European criteria for worker involvement. Certainly the implementation, through the Employment Protection Act 1975 (now Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, ss 188-198) of consultation with recognised trade unions in the event of redundancy, was found by the European Court of Justice not to comply with the Directive on collective redundancies.5