Secretary's Corner
April 2010
Whilst reading up on some employment law update material recently, I came across an article from Thompson’s Solicitors outlining the importance of Unions having up to date membership records in cases of industrial action ballots.
The article highlights some examples of where ballots for industrial action have been challenged in the courts due to membership data inaccuracies. In the case of Metrobus v Unite a 90% vote in favour of strike action over pay and conditions was challenged in the high court, the judge found that there were fatal flaws in the balloting process and the court of appeal upheld that decision, the court then issued an injunction preventing strike action taking place.
Probably a more high profile case that occurred recently was in the case of British Airways v Unite. On this occasion the Union included in its ballot hundreds of members who had volunteered for redundancy, without telling them that they were not eligible to vote. BA argued that the union could not reasonably have believed that those members would take part in any industrial action; the court agreed that the ballot had contained inaccurate numbers, an injunction was granted and the strike action was called off.
In a further case industrial action was halted due to the categorisation of “trades” as listed on the Unions membership database.
The article then goes on to detail the very serious nature of a court injunction and that a breach of an injunction is viewed as a contempt of court which can lead to a very hefty fine or even imprisonment. It also emphasises the importance of the very detailed and prescriptive nature of the rules concerning industrial action ballots, that no ballot can be held without all data being checked for accuracy, employers will not hesitate to raise challenges wherever they can and that if the rules are not followed to the letter, it can prove disastrous for a union and its members. Therefore it is imperative that members ensure that all of their details are bang up to date, not only name and address, but also workplace and job title. By visiting our website at www.eeas-unison.com this can be done online and only takes a few minutes.
Not only is it important for membership details to be accurate for the reasons given above, there are also some very important elections taking place at the moment which gives members the opportunity to have their say on who represents them at local and national level. By now members should all have received ballot papers for some local Branch Officer elections and also a full membership ballot for the position of UNISONS General Secretary. At the AGM in February, this Branch took the decision to support the current General Secretary Dave Prentis in this important election. It was felt that Dave has done a good job of representing UNISON members at DOH and Government level so far, that he has the political wisdom and respect from his peers and that he offers stability in taking the Union forward in the very tough times that lie ahead. That is the view of the Branch, but it is ultimately your vote that will decide.
The latest important update on the Technician Job Evaluation is that, a panel has been convened and in line with national JE procedures an evaluation has taken place. The outcome in terms of banding from that panel is not yet known as the next stage is for the panels findings to go through a quality and consistency check. This is normal procedure and in line with any other job evaluation. We are expecting that the consistency check will take place within the next couple of weeks and I hope to have further news in next months newsletter. 
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