Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004
The Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 (SI 3426/2004) are a United Kingdom statutory instrument. This follows the EU Information and Consultation of Employees Directive 2002/14/EC establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees. Contents. The ICE Regulations require that employees are informed and consulted on all contract or workplace organisation changes. Consultation means an "obligation to negotiate" with "a view to reaching agreement". The penalty on an employer for failure to consult or follow the Regulations is up to £75,000 for each violation. Negotiation and consultation may take  place under a voluntary agreement with an employer, particularly through a trade union under a collective agreement. If there is no voluntary agreement, formal consultation procedure may be triggered by at least 2% of employees, and then requires election of a body of all staff. This procedure must "enable the information and consultation representatives to meet the employer at the relevant level of management depending on the subject under discussion".