Catherwood LibraryILR School

Attempting to avoid a move towards workplace joint decision-making as it implements an Information and Consultation directive from the European Union's (EU's) Ministers' Council (see WIT for March 25, 2002), the Britain's "New Labour" government will today make clear the decision-making supremacy of employers. At a conference of the Trades Union Congress, a government official will announce the establishment of an information and consultation system that does not include any resemblance to the much envied German system of co-determination by strong works councils. The labor movement's demands for such a system---to be voiced once again by the head of Britain's largest private sector union Amicus today---in part to slow the loss of thousands of jobs as multi-national corporations (MNC's) cut their British workforces, have been condemned as a threat to business by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).