Employees' representative
Employees' representative. The person the employer must inform and consult in a collective redundancy or transfer: usually the recognised union's representative.
What it is
For collective redundancies, transfers of business and some other purposes, the Employment and Industrial Relations Act (Cap. 452) requires the employer to inform and consult the “employees’ representatives”. Article 2 defines who they are, for the purposes of articles 35, 36(14), 37 and 38.
Who it is
In order:
- The recognised union representative.
- Where there is no recognised union, the representative of the union representing the employees.
- For non-unionised employees, a representative elected from among them by secret ballot, called by the employer for that purpose.
Why it matters
The duties in a collective redundancy and a transfer of business are owed to these representatives. Notifying the wrong people, or no one, can make the whole process defective. Where there is no union, the employer needs time to organise the ballot, so it belongs at the start of the timetable.
Representatives are also protected: being, seeking to be or having acted as an employees’ representative can never be a good and sufficient cause for dismissal (article 36(14)).