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On 10 January 2017, the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) ruled on the obligation of employers to provide information in the run-up to EWC establishment. The court action was taken by an employee representative from Facilicom, a Dutch facility services company. On grounds of company confidentiality, the human resources department of the British subsidiary had refused to provide exact figures concerning the size and distribution of the workforce in EU Member States and to communicate the contact information of national works councils.
These figures are necessary, so that employee representatives may examine whether the company falls within the scope of the EWC Directive and to start establishing the EWC when appropriate. There had never been a court ruling on the subject in the United Kingdom. The European Court of Justice rulings from 2001 to 2004 which were fought out by German works councils (Bofrost, Kühne + Nagel as well as ADS Anker cases) played an important role hereby. With these in mind, the CAC ruled fully in favor of the plaintiff and fixed a 28 day deadline for the company to provide all the information. Facilicom has 28,000 employees in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom. In the meantime they have started to establish the Special Negotiating Body.
Text of the Court ruling: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases/additional_data/m8588_46_3.pdf
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