Employee involvement
3.—(1) In Article 243(5) of the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order[1986 NI 6] 1986 (matters to be dealt with in directors' report) for the words “and IV” there shall be substituted the words “IV and V” and at the end there shll be added the words “and th involvemnt of employees in th affairs, policy and performance of the company”.
(2) At the end of Schedule 7 of that Order there shall be added—
“PART VEMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT
11.—(1) This part applies to the director’s report where the average number of persons employed by the company in each week during the financial year exceeded 250.
(2) That average number is the quotient derived by dividing by the number of weeks in the financial year the number derived by ascertaining, in relation to each of those weeks, the number of persons who, under contracts of service, were employed in the week (whether throughout it or not) by the company, and adding up the numbers ascertained.
(3) The directors' report shall in that case contain a statement describing the action that has been taken during the financial year to intorduce, maintain or develop arrangements aimed at—
(a)providing employees systematically with information on matters of concern to them as employees;
(b)consulting employees or their representatives on a regular basis so that the views of employees can be taken into account in making decisions which are likely to affect their interests;
(c)encouraging the involvement of employees in the company’s performance through an employees' share scheme or by some other means;
(d)achieving a common awareness on the part of all employees of the financial and economic factors affecting the performance of the company.
(4) In sub-paragraph (3) “employee” does not include a person employed to work wholly or mainly outside the United Kingdom; and for the purposes of sub-paragraph (2) no regard is to be had to such a person.”.