Introduction
The European Information and Consultation (I&C) Directive (2002/14/EC) was introduced
to promote social dialogue and elements of shared decision-making. The directive
required member states to introduce permanent arrangements so managers would support
dialogue at the workplace level in three broad areas: (i) provide ‘information’ pertaining
to the economic situation of the company; (ii) enable ‘information and
consultation’ concerning developments or threats to employment; and (iii) ‘inform and
consult employees, with a view to reaching agreement’ on decisions likely to lead to
changes in work organization or contractual arrangements. One main disincentive in the
United Kingdom (UK) and Irish context is that employees have to ‘trigger’ the right and
request an information and consultation forum, which may actually discourage voice and
participation (Hall, 2010; Wilkinson et al., 2007). There was a perception that the directive
was introduced with specifically the UK and Ireland in mind, given that they were
the only two European Union (EU) member states at the time lacking generalized
employee voice legislation (Hall et al., 2011).