17.—(1) Employees’ representatives who are employees and who perform their functions in accordance with this Act shall not—

(a) be dismissed or suffer any unfavourable change in their conditions of employment or any unfair treatment, including selection for redundancy, or

(b) suffer any other action prejudicial to their employment,

because of their status or reasonable activities as employees’ representatives.

F32[(1A) Without prejudice to the competence of other bodies or organisations in this respect, central management shall provide the members of the European Employees’ Forum or European Works Council, as the case may be, with the means required to apply the rights arising from the Directive, to represent the collective interests of employees of the Community-scale undertaking or Community-scale group of undertakings concerned.]

(2) Employees’ representatives shall be afforded such reasonable facilities, including time off, as will enable them to carry out their functions as employees’ representatives promptly and efficiently.

(3) Subsections (1) and (2) shall apply in particular to attendance by employees’ representatives at meetings of Special Negotiating Bodies, European Employees’ Fora, European Works Councils or any other meetings within the framework of an agreement referred to in section 11 (1) or of the Second Schedule.

(4) Employees’ representatives who are employed in a Community-scale undertaking or a Community-scale group of undertakings shall be paid their wages (within the meaning of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991) for any period of absence for the purposes of the performance of their functions under this Act.

F33[(4A) An employees’ representative, or an alternate of that representative, who is a member of the crew of a seagoing vessel, shall be entitled to participate in—

(a) a meeting of the Special Negotiating Body or of the European Works Council, or

(b) any other meeting within the framework of an agreement referred to in section 11(1),

where that employees’ representative, or that alternate, is not at sea or in a port in a country other than that in which the shipping company is domiciled, when the meeting takes place.

(4B) A meeting referred to in subsection (4A) shall, where practicable, be scheduled to facilitate the participation of an employees’ representative, or an alternate of that representative, who is a member of the crew of a seagoing vessel.

(4C) Where an employees’ representative, or an alternate of that representative, who is a member of the crew of a seagoing vessel, is unable to attend a meeting, the possibility of using, where possible, new information and communications technologies shall be considered.]

F32[(5) Without prejudice to section 15, the members of the European Employees’ Forum or European Works Council, as the case may be, shall inform—

(a) the representatives of the employees of—

(i) the establishments of a Community-scale group of undertakings, or

(ii) the undertakings of a Community-scale group of undertakings,

or

(b) in the absence of such representatives, the workforce as a whole,

of the content and outcome of the information and consultation procedure carried out in accordance with this Act.

(6) In so far as it is necessary for the exercise of their representative duties in a transnational setting, the members of the Special Negotiating Body, the European Employees’ Forum or European Works Council, as the case may be, shall be provided with appropriate training by their employers without loss of wages.]