Legislating for NER? NER and the ICE regulations at manufacture co.

The transposition of the Information and Consultation (I&C) Directive, in the form of the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations 2004, placed for the fi rst time on the UK statute books the possibility that UK-based companies could be legally required to establish an employee representation forum, albeit a non-union one (Storey, 2005; Hall et al. 2013). Such a body might be seen to have the characteristics of a non-union employee representation (NER) system. Indeed, as evident from other chapters, the ICE Regulations coincide with a period of growing interest in the NER phenomenon and concerns around the effectiveness of such mechanisms in securing employee voice. New waters for NERs have been effectively chartered by the introduction of a legislative component in the form of the ICE Regulations. This potentially offers fresh opportunities and a new context for establishing NER voice regimes.