ONLY 25 out of more than 200 major multinational companies in Ireland have concluded works council agreements with their employees, even though they are required to do so under EU law by September 22nd.

The figure was given by the Department of Enterprise and Employment yesterday when the Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, announced the details of new legislation to comply with the directive.

She rejected trade union criticism that the Government had adopted a minimalist approach and said that in some areas Irish legislation went beyond the minimum EU requirements.

However, the assistant general secretary of ICTU, Mr Kevin Duffy, said: "Much more is needed to make worker participation a reality for workers in Ireland."

He called for enterprise works councils in all companies employing 20 or more people. The new Bill was no more than "a small, first step in recognising employees as stakeholders in the company where they work.

The Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Bill requires companies employing at least 1,000 people across the EU, with at least 150 in two member states, to provide for the election of a European Works Council (EWC). This will have to be provided with information on financial, structural and policy matters, including any proposed mergers or takeovers.

The legislation provides three main routes for establishing an EWC. Companies can pre-empt the legislation by establishing structures now. These must have the support of a majority of the workforce.

Alternatively, once the legislation is in place, 100 employees can demand an election to a Single Negotiating Body (SNB) which will have the right to negotiate the establishment of an EWC. If no EWC is established within three years of the Bill becoming law, companies are obliged to comply or face fines of up to £10,000 and ongoing fines of £200 a day. Senior management could also face up to three years imprisonment.

While only employees of a company can be elected to the EWC, full-time trade union officials can be elected to the SNB. Officials can also be retained by EWC representatives to provide them with expert advice. The cost of this service must be borne by the company.

Employees on EWCs will have to be given reasonable time off, with pay, to perform their representative functions. They cannot be dismissed for EWC related activities. Part-time employees, who work eight hours a week or more for a company, will be eligible to vote in EWC related elections and run for election.

If a company considers information too commercially sensitive to be given to the EWC, council members can seek independent assessment of the information. There is an obligation on employees to respect the confidentiality of information given to them through the EWC and a breach of that trust will be a criminal offence.

Ms Fitzgerald said that she had resisted trade union pressure to have EWC agreements registered with the Labour Court because there were technical and legal difficulties in doing so. The same difficulties had ruled out using the Companies Office for registration.

She also said the Bill should not be seen as a tool for addressing trade union recognition problems in some multinational companies. "This legislation is not about union recognition", she said. "That is a different issue and an agenda for another day."

Nevertheless she said it represented a historic step forward. It is the first time in the private sector that we have had consultation and employee involvement."

Seven of the 25 companies which have registered EWCs in Ireland are British and the rest French, German and American. Britain has opted out of the EU social charter but many large British companies have plants in other EU states.

There has been controversy over the establishment of at least one EWC here, PepsiCo. The US drinks company employs 36,000 people in the EU of whom 150 are based in Ireland.

The British Transport and General Workers Union, which failed to secure any places in the PepsiCo EWC election, has accused the company of deliberately selecting Ireland as its EU "business centre" because Irish legislation was less rigorous than that of some other EU states.

PepsiCo says Ireland was selected because the "company language" is English and it was the country which was closest geographically, culturally and in its legal system to Britain, where the EU headquarters was located.