Hi,
Does anyone know the exact role of the employee reps here ? I was assuming it was essentially that of a glorified mouthpiece. eg having a discussion with 100 employees who are at risk, all at the same time, simply isn't practical. So as a convenience the employees elect 3 reps and then the 100 decide what the 3 should say. The 3 then have a discussion with the management and they relay the responses and info received back to the 100, rinse and repeat until the consultation period has expired. Is this it ?
The reason I ask is because it seems that if the reps receive information from the employer and the employer marks this as Confidential then the reps would be the only ones able to use this info to try to come up with an alternative to avoid the redundancies, which significantly expands the role of the rep beyond just that of a 'mouthpiece'. Take Section 10, of Protection of Employment Act, 1977, for example, we know that in any collective redundancy the employer is legally obliged to provide the information specified there to the Minister of E,T&E and subsequently provide a copy of this letter to the reps.
Can the reps then pass this information on to the employees they represent verbatim so that you would have 100 affected employees to try to come up with an alternative, or could the employer mark this letter as Confidential to the reps meaning a much larger burden on just the 3 reps ?
Thanks,
Usjes.
Does anyone know the exact role of the employee reps here ? I was assuming it was essentially that of a glorified mouthpiece. eg having a discussion with 100 employees who are at risk, all at the same time, simply isn't practical. So as a convenience the employees elect 3 reps and then the 100 decide what the 3 should say. The 3 then have a discussion with the management and they relay the responses and info received back to the 100, rinse and repeat until the consultation period has expired. Is this it ?
The reason I ask is because it seems that if the reps receive information from the employer and the employer marks this as Confidential then the reps would be the only ones able to use this info to try to come up with an alternative to avoid the redundancies, which significantly expands the role of the rep beyond just that of a 'mouthpiece'. Take Section 10, of Protection of Employment Act, 1977, for example, we know that in any collective redundancy the employer is legally obliged to provide the information specified there to the Minister of E,T&E and subsequently provide a copy of this letter to the reps.
Can the reps then pass this information on to the employees they represent verbatim so that you would have 100 affected employees to try to come up with an alternative, or could the employer mark this letter as Confidential to the reps meaning a much larger burden on just the 3 reps ?
Thanks,
Usjes.