Press Release: New Worker Information and Consultation Directive ‘a modern business tool’, says European Commission

A European Commission compromise package successfully clinched on 18 December 2001 a unanimous agreement on a directive setting rules for companies informing and consulting their employees, after three years of often animated discussion. The new EU framework law, which must now be put into the national laws of the fifteen EU countries, obliges all businesses with over fifty employees to provide for genuine information and consultation of their workers before all major decisions at the company, especially those affecting jobs.