Press release

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MacMillan hit with £55,000 fine

Publishing House MacMillan has received a £55,000 fine from the Employment Appeals Tribunal for failing to set up an Employee Consultation Forum.

This is the first fine handed down by the EAT under the Information and Consultation of Employee Regulations.

MacMillan received a request organized by trade union Amicus in 2006 to set up an Employee Forum, but failed to respond to it as required by the law. Amicus took MacMillan to the Central Arbitration Committee who upheld its complaint in February this year. The CAC strongly criticised MacMillan for the way it responded to the request for an Employee Forum.

Amicus has now applied to the EAT for a penalty against MacMillan. The maximum fine EAT could have imposed was £75,000.

Commenting on the fine, Philip Sack, Director of Policy at European Study Group said:

“This fine is bigger than expected and shows the importance of responding properly to employee requests under the ICE Regulations.

Since April this year the law has applied to companies with 100 or more employees, this means just 15 employees is all it takes to trigger a request under the Regulations. From April 2008, it will apply to firms with 50 or more employees.

Employers need to be aware of the law and how they should respond to it. The best strategy is to put a voluntary agreement in place before you get a formal request.”


July 2007