Mr. Jim Callaghanasked the Secretary of State for Employment what recent incentives he has taken to expand industrial democracy.
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§ Mr. GummerThe Government are firmly committed to the development of employee involvement on a voluntary basis and we take all suitable opportunities to stress this fact.
Section 1 of the Employment Act 1982 provides that companies with more than 250 employees should describe in their annual reports what action they have taken in the past 12 months to introduce, maintain or develop employee involvement. This requirement has applied to all annual reports covering periods ending after 1 January this year. We believe that section 1 has a useful pan to play in support of the Government's encouragement of the spread of employee involvement on a voluntary basis.