Great Britain: appeal court confirms that a company’s management may implement plans without waiting for the EWC’s opinion

In a judgement handed down on 31 July (here), the Employment Appeal Tribunal rejected the appeal from the European Works Council at Oracle, against an initial decision made on 12 February (see article n°10566) by the UK’s Central Arbitration Committee. The judgement confirms that a company’s management does not need to wait for the EWC to give its opinion before beginning to implement plans at a local level. This decision has been made in the light of the subsidiary requirements laid down by UK law, which governed the EWC in question.
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Oracle’s European Works Council is governed by subsidiary requirements, as set out in UK law in the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Regulation (TICER). Having taken the view that Oracle’s management had failed to respect requirements to inform and consult with the EWC, the latter took the matter to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC), the first instance court for labour relations in the UK. However the CAC rejected the EWC’s complaint, ruling that the tech corporatio

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