Acting as Employee representative in absence of Union representation

[JonnyLH]

Good Morning all. I am looking for some information and advice on
A) acting as a employee representative when a union rep is not present.
B) What to expect from a consultation period when acting the above for a change of location of the Primary work location.

In a nutshell..My company is moving location some 12 miles down the road to a new location. We are moving from our own building into a shared building with another company. The workforce were not consulted at any time before the agreement or while the contract was being written, we were informed after of the new plans and location. Although it is a change of only 12 miles this displaces most of the employees but has more of a detrimental effect on the time it takes to get to work due to the current location being on the M1 motorway and the new location is 12 miles into the countryside accessed by single A roads or B roads.
I have been elected to represent the employees during consultation to:
A) Ask for and consider employee feedback on proposed changes
B)try and reach agreements on ways to reduce the impact of proposed changes
C)discuss compensation for disadvantaged employees.
Does anyone have any advice on how this may go or what I can expect to achieve from the consultation?

[ULA]

In the absence of a union you are now the individual who becomes the "go to" person for the company to consult with on behalf of all the staff affected by the relocation.

You have been given the areas that they are looking to consult with you on - your final points A-C which are typical of those I would expect to see for a relocation move of this mileage.

What you will be required to do is communicate with the staff about the company's relocation proposals and then provide back to the company feedback from those staff members. Obviously for some, the move will be ok it may even be a shorter journey. However, for those where is does cause and issue either financially due to higher costs as it is further to travel, extra time which may adversely affect family routines e.g. school runs these are going to be the cases that you will spend most of your time consulting with between the staff and the company.

I would suggest that you try and deal with this by not taking each specific case of an adversely affected employee unless their issues are exceptional but try and group them together e.g. we have 10 staff members for whom the move will cost them more to travel to the new site, what compensation is the company considering? Another group maybe responsible for / assist on some days with the school run and getting to work now for the official start time may be a problem, would the company consider flexibility on this etc?

It would appear from what you have said the company will be relocating but you need to work between them and the staff to minimise the affect it will have on the majority of the staff.

I hope that has helped.