By Ger Gibbons

On the 15th January, the European Commission issued a roadmap on this year’s planned ‘evaluation and fitness check’ of 1991 EU legislation on an employer’s obligation to inform employees of the conditions applicable to the contract or employment relationship (the ‘written statement’ directive).

This legislation commits member states to enact measures requiring employers to provide employees with a written document containing information on the essential elements of their contract or employment relationship, within two months of starting employment. It is intended to ensure that employees know who they work for and the basic conditions of their job, including details of “the length of the employee’s normal working day or week”.

The legislation is implemented in Ireland through the Terms of Employment (Information) Acts, 1994 and 2001. A 1999 Commission report pointed out that in implementing the legislation (to that time), Ireland had availed of a possible derogation to exempt employees working less than eight hours a week.

The roadmap points out that this legislation has never been “thoroughly evaluated”, and states that the Commission will now assess the “compliance, relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and coherence of the legislation and address its “EU added value”. The evaluation will involve an assessment of implementation in all member states by national legal experts, a “specific focus” on eight member states (Ireland isn’t one of them), interviews with EU-level stakeholders, including the social partners, workshops with experts and stakeholders, and a  three month public consultation, to be launched by the end of January. The Commission intends to outline its findings and intentions in October.