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Exemption.
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6.—(1) Subject to subsections (3), (4) and (5), the obligations under this Act shall not apply to Community-scale undertakings or Community-scale groups of undertakings in which, on the commencement of this Act or the 22nd day of September, 1996, whichever is the earlier, there is or was in force within the same Community-scale undertaking or Community-scale group of undertakings an agreement covering the entire workforce providing for the transnational information and consultation of employees, and while that agreement remains in force.
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(2) An agreement referred to in subsection (1) may comprise multiple agreements within the same Community-scale undertaking or group of undertakings if, construed together, they satisfy the requirements of that subsection.
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(3) At any time before an agreement referred to in subsection (1) expires or within the period of six months immediately after it expires, the parties to the agreement may jointly renew it for such further period as they think fit.
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(4) An agreement renewed under subsection (3) within the six months period referred to in that subsection shall be deemed to have remained in force from the date it would otherwise have expired.
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(5) Where an agreement is not renewed in pursuance of subsection (3) before its expiration or before the expiration of the six months period referred to in that subsection, this Act shall, on the expiration of that six months period, but not before, apply in full to and in relation to the Community-scale undertaking or group of undertakings to which the agreement applied.
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(6) An agreement referred to in subsection (1) shall be presumed to be valid unless proved to the contrary, and shall remain in force—
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(a) for such period, if any, as is specified in the agreement or the agreement as renewed; or
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(b) in the case of an open ended agreement, until it is brought to an end in accordance with its terms.
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(7) An agreement referred to in subsection (1) shall not be valid unless it has been accepted by a majority of the workforce to which it applies.
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(8) In this section “agreement” includes an open ended agreement subject to review and alteration by the parties.
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