PART 4NEGOTIATION OF THE EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT AGREEMENT
Decisions of the special negotiating body18.
(1)
Each member of the special negotiating body shall have one vote.
(2)
Subject to paragraph (3) and regulation 19, the special negotiating body shall take decisions by an absolute majority vote.
(3)
In the following circumstances any decision which would result in a reduction of participation must be taken by a two thirds majority vote:
(a)
where an SCE is to be formed by merger and at least 25% of the employees employed to work in the EEA States by the participating cooperatives which are due to merge have participation; and
(b)
where an SCE is to be formed in any other way and at least 50% of the total number of employees employed to work in the EEA States by the participating individuals and participating legal entities have participation.
In this paragraph, reduction of participation means that the proportion of members of the supervisory or administrative organ of the SCE who may be elected or appointed (or whose appointment may be recommended or opposed) by virtue of participation is lower than the proportion of such members in the participating legal entity which had the highest proportion of such members.
(4)
The special negotiating body must publish the details of any decision taken under this regulation or under regulation 19 in such a manner as to bring the decision, so far as reasonably practicable, to the attention of the employees whom they represent and such publication shall take place as soon as reasonably practicable and, in any event no later than 14 days after the decision has been taken.
(5)
For the purpose of negotiations, the special negotiating body may be assisted by experts of its choice.
(6)
The participating individuals and participating legal entities shall pay for any reasonable expenses of the functioning of the special negotiating body and any reasonable expenses relating to the negotiations that are necessary to enable the special negotiating body to carry out its functions in an appropriate manner; but where the special negotiating body is assisted by more than one expert the participating individuals and participating legal entities are not required to pay such expenses in respect of more than one of them.