What are the basic requirements of a fair consultation process?
In R v London Borough of Haringey the Supreme Court endorsed the four ‘Gunning’ principles as the essential ingredients of a fair consultation:
- consultation must take place when the proposal is still at a formative stage
- sufficient reasons for the proposal must be put forward to allow for intelligent consideration and response
- adequate time must be given for consideration and response
- responses must be conscientiously taken into account
These are important concepts for employers to understand. They underpin redundancy proposals, re-structures, transfers, contractual changes and are central to the management process when dealing with changes in working practices and procedures.