S.L. 452.98 Art. 9Negotiations on and content of employee involvement agreement.

(1) The competent organs of the participating legal entities and the special negotiating body are under a duty to negotiate in a spirit of cooperation with a view to reaching an employee involvement agreement.

(2) The duty referred to in subregulation (1) commences one month after the date on which all the members of the special negotiating body were elected or appointed and applies -

(a) for a period of six months starting with the day on which the duty commenced or, where an employee involvement agreement is successfully negotiated within that period, until the completion of the negotiations;

(b) where the parties agree before the end of the six month period referred to in paragraph (a) that it is to be extended, for a period of twelve months starting from the day on which the duty commenced or, where an employee involvement agreement is successfully negotiated within this twelve month period, until the completion of the negotiations.

(3) The competent organs of the participating legal entity or entities shall provide the special negotiating body with such information as is necessary to keep it informed of the plan and progress of establishing the SCE up to the time the SCE has been registered.

(4) Without prejudice to the autonomy of the competent organs of the participating legal entities and the special negotiating body, and subject to subregulation (6), the agreement referred to in subregulation (1) between the competent organs of the participating legal entities and the special negotiating body, shall specify:

(a) the scope of the agreement;

(b) the composition, number of members and allocation of seats on the representative body which will be the discussion partner of the competent organ of the SCE in connection with arrangements for the information and consultation of the employees of the SCE and its subsidiaries and establishments;

(c) the functions and the procedure for the information and consultation of the representative body;

(d) the frequency of meetings of the representative body;

(e) the financial and material resources to be allocated to the representative body;

(f) if, during negotiations, the parties decide to establish one or more information and consultation procedures instead of a representative body, the arrangements for implementing those procedures;

(g) if, during negotiations, the parties decide to establish arrangements for participation, the substance of those arrangements including (if applicable) the number of members in the SCE’s administrative or supervisory body which the employees will be entitled to elect, appoint, recommend or oppose, the procedures as to how these members may be elected, appointed, recommended or opposed by the employees, and their rights;

(h) the date of entry into force of the agreement and its duration, cases where the agreement should be renegotiated and the procedure for its renegotiation, including, where appropriate, the duty to renegotiate on changes in worker involvement in the event of structural changes in the SCE and its subsidiaries and establishments which occur after the creation of the SCE.

(5) The agreement shall not, unless provision is made otherwise therein, be subject to the standard rules referred to in the Schedule to these regulations.

(6) In the case of an SCE established by means of transformation, the agreement shall provide for at least the same level of all elements of employee involvement as the ones existing within the cooperative to be transformed into an SCE.

(7) The agreement may specify the arrangements for the entitlement of employees to participate in the general meetings or in the section or sectorial meetings in accordance with regulation 13 and any other arrangement emanating from Article 59(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1435/2003 on the Statute of the European Co-operative Society.