THE CBI has condemned European plans for works councils as an attack on UK differences and labour market flexibility.

Kent-based Susan Anderson, the employers' organisation's director of human resources policy, said that it was part of a spate of European Union red tape that attacked British "differences".

"Why should we have to do it the way they do it?" she said during a visit to the Kent Messenger Group offices.

Under the latest European Works Councils Directive, companies will be required -- if employees want it -- to set up works councils to inform and consult employee representatives.

UK employers will be obliged to consult the council on a wide range of issues. Eurotunnel, an Anglo-French company, already has works councils in place.

Ms Anderson, from Chislehurst, said there was not a general problem with employee involvement and industrial relations that needed "solving".

The UK did many things differently for good reason. "It's very wearing to be told all the time that just because we do it differently, what we do is not acceptable," she said.

Most of these "differences" made us more competitive. But other EU members resented that competitive "advantage".

She said the UK was not always a role model and some legislation was necessary.

"We're not against having minimum standards. The national minimum wage is an accepted part of the landscape, and we're sitting down with the TUC and making it work."

The EU should turn its attention to other areas that did need attention, such as pensions law and promoting labour flexibility.

But other measures, such as the temporary workers directive that threatened 160,000 jobs, were decidedly unwelcome. Asked to sum up her view of the red tape coming out of Brussels, she said: "Frustration would be the least of it."