On 10 October 2014, the Social Economic Council (SER), the tripartite body that acts as the government’s main advisory body on works council issues and that monitors the execution and enforcement of the Works Council Act (WOR), formulated a recommendation on works councils and confidentiality. Although the recommendation will not be transposed into legislation the fact that both sides of the industries are involved in the drawing and conclusion of these SER-positions guarantees an effect in practice. Imposing the constraint of confidentiality will only occur under exceptional circumstance and its imposition should not hinder the works council undertaking its responsibilities. The recommendation sets a framework for treating confidentiality.
Basically the Dutch Works Council Act prescribes that in some cases, in view of the interests at stake, the works council members have to treat certain information in confidence. This (active or passive) confidentiality was (and is) regulated by Article 20 that stipulates that works council members and members of its committees, as well as any consulted experts, shall treat in strict confidence all business and industrial secrets which may come to their knowledge (or matters with respect to whi
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