Cases alleging a breach of the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 1999 (TICER 1999) are very rare and (1) Verizon EWC (2) Charpentier v Central Management of the Verizon Group is the first application of its kind for penalty notices to be issued by the EAT for failures to comply with the TICER 1999 provisions. Given the current Covid 19 driven redundancies being proposed by employers, those employers with EWCs should take note as the maximum penalty is £100,000. The Verizon European Works Council applied to the EAT under Regulations 21 and 21A of TICER 1999 for the issue of penalty notices against Verizon’s central management for breaches of TICER 1999 and the agreement between the parties which were the subject of findings by the CAC. Because of Verizon’s failure to properly inform and consult with the EWC about a proposed reorganisation involved redundancies in eight European countries the EAT issued a penalty notice in the sum of £35,000. The EAT rejected Verizon’s argument that the gravity of the failures was slight, the period of time over which they occurred was short and the reason for them was accidental and well-intentioned.
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