| The doctoral thesis is a jurisprudential research into the need for a general and reinforced obligation to inform and consult employees or their representatives in case of restructuring. In case of a restructuring, employees, as well as employers, that are looking for information on who has to be informed and/or consulted about what and when, come up against a complex, incomplete tangle of regulations and obligations. Such an amalgam is a breeding ground for conflicts, but it does not contribute to a better social dialogue before the restructuring takes place.;The first part of the research concerns two rather general research questions. The thesis that the objective of the right to information and consultation is imbedded in the functions of labour law, is applied to answer the question on which grounds these rights can be legitimated Together with other rights, they contribute to the emancipatory and the corrective function of labour law. That is why every employee has to be able to utilise this right to information and consultation, and especially when they are facing threatening situations like restructurings. Hence there is the argument that, in the light of the principle of equality, it is hard to justify, from a legal point of view, why employees of small and medium-sized enterprises in particular, are deprived of the right to information and consultation. After all, exercising these rights is de lege lata dependent on the existence of institutionalised consultation committees, which are usually only established in large enterprises.;The second part of the research concerns the notion 'restructuring'. For the research, it is this notion that determines the material scope of application of the right to information and consultation.;Here it is proposed to describe restructuring as every permanent and important change in an undertaking's structure. An undertaking's structure is shaped by its legal form, but also by all the people and means that, directed by a central management, create a certain economic activity. The decision to proceed to a restructuring is therefore a decision that aims to change the legal form of the undertaking, its management, its ownership, or the organisation of labour or the production process in a sustainable and substantial way.;In the third and last part of the research the decision making procedure is being examined. The question is to what extent this process, as far as restructuring is concerned, can be influenced through the right to information and consultation. The difficulty to influence that process determines to what degree the corrective factor and the emancipatory function of these fundamental employment protection rights can be fulfilled in a situation in which acquired social rights, and many times the survival of industrial relations themselves are being pressured. This part of the research elaborates on the thesis that the possibility to influence the decision making process, as far as restructuring is concerned, and to which extend this can be done, is dependent on four parameters. The potential range of influence is set by the importance and the content of the employer's obligation to inform and consult, by the timing to which the employers are bound to inform and consult the employees (or there representatives), and by the presence or absence of an effective mechanism to sanction in case of non-compliance with the obligation to inform and consult.;A comparative legal analysis of these parameters has indicated that, according to Belgian labour law, there is a need for a (more) general and reinforced information and consultation procedure in case of restructurings. |
