Hard law, soft edge? Information, consultation and partnership.

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the transposition of the EU directive on informing and consulting employees is likely to enhance voice and participation rights of Irish employees. The paper assesses the reasons for the “voice gaps” the evidence suggests exist in Irish workplaces and analysing the implications of the legal changes brought in by the information and consultation legislation. The paper argues that the transposition of the EU Directive provided a unique opportunity to bolster voice mechanisms in Irish workplaces and “plug” some of the gaps identified in the literature. However, the paper argues this opportunity has been largely squandered, as a result of the Irish Government’s minimalist approach to “hard” regulation of information and consultation rights in the transposing legislation