the CWU's Annual Report for 2006-2007

More documents

Recommendations

Info

changes during the year, with the retirement in May of its principle Officer, Jim Moher and loss of Tam McGee, Policy Advisor, who very sadly died in November. They both had an enormous amount of experience and were a great asset to the CWU. Jim and Tam will be sorely missed by the union. The Officer post was covered by Andrea Snowden, Chair of the Membership Services and Communications Committee. The Policy Advisor post was covered by Sylvia Boyce. We have had another busy year responding to members and branches on cases on which they wanted to be advised or represented at Employment Tribunals. Most of our cases continue to concern unfair dismissal. The law has become more complex as more legislation and case law came into effect. The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 (SI 1031/2006) and the Employment Equality (Age) Regualtions (Northern Ireland) 2006 (SR2006/261) came into force on 1st October 2006. The Union produced a booklet with the assistance of the Labour Research Department and this was distributed to Branches. The long-awaited Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations 2006 SI 2006/246 finally came into force on 6th April 2006. We keep track of all legal changes through specialist journals and through our main lawyers, Simpson Millar, who publish regular updating bulletins. We discussed these changes with our ET reps at our seminars to which we invite our lawyers and outside speakers as required. We continue to report directly to the Membership, Services and Communications standing committee of the NEC. 7.2 EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL CASES IN 2006 In 2006 we received five hundred and seventy requests for assistance in specific cases. This represented a 37.4% increase on the requests received from the previous year. We now have members in many more companies than we had in the past, and it is clear that employers, recognised or un-recognised, are taking a much tougher stance with their employees on attendance, performance and conduct matters. Members themselves are also more aware of their legal rights and this too has contributed to an increase in requests for representation. The changes to the Disability and Discrimination Act in 2004 had already proved to us that new or amended legislation would bring additional cases for consideration. In 2007 we anticipate a further increase to the department’s workload with potential claims under the Age Discrimination regulations. It is impossible to quantify how many claims will be made but we envisage an increase, particularly in the first year of this legislations introduction. We re-issued the guidance on Employment Tribunals – “Members Rights of Access and Processing an ET Claim” in LTB 315. We will continue to update Branches on any changes that affect the process and we remain available to offer guidance and support if required. A total of £689,930 was won for members via settlements and Tribunal awards during 2006. In addition, we have continued to assist branches and the Industrial Executives on a wide range of matters throughout the year. Following detailed consideration of all the requests for representation, including face-to-face interviews with many members either by Panellists or lawyers, decisions were made to support a significant number of those cases. Our record of taking cases to tribunal compares favourably with most other unions. Those cases we do take, we usually get some result on, whether by way of compensation or (occasionally) reinstatement/ re-engagement. As our ET Panellist representatives have grown in confidence and experience, we are getting some really high levels of compensation. In one particular case which was won with representation from one of our ET Panellists, we achieved maximum compensation of just over £58,000. We cannot, of course, publicise individual case settlements as they usually involve confidentiality clauses. However, those that go all the way to a tribunal hearing are publicly recorded. Where we were unable to assist, because we concluded, on advice, that there was no reasonable prospect of success, (the union’s normal criterion for support), a detailed explanation was given in each case. Where any member or branch was not satisfied with that explanation and provided more evidence, many cases were reconsidered. Deciding how tribunals will judge any particular case on the day is not a precise science, as tribunals are becoming more legalistic and less worker-friendly. 7.3 CWU EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL REPRESENTATIVES PANEL The ET Panel’s popularity within the Union and its success rate has meant that there has been an increased demand from Branches for member’s cases to be referred to a panellist for more in-depth, individual attention. Whilst we cannot accommodate all such requests, we do continue to utilise the panel where a case has merit and where it would be wise for us to discuss with a member, face to face, their claims. Whilst most unions have been persuaded to use lawyers exclusively in place of full-time officials, we have found that a blend of the two is the best, both cost-wise and in terms of settlements. We currently have 25 members of the panel. In 2006 we held two ET panel Training Seminars at the Elstead Hotel in Bournemouth and we will continue to provide this important training for panel members. The current Panellists are: Birmingham: Paul Kennedy, Michael Lynch, Ali Moosa, Jim Reeves. Cardiff: Katrina Quirke. Hull: David Fields. Kent: Tim Lane. Leamington Spa: Dennis McWilliams. Leeds: Keith Hardacre. Liverpool: Brian Kenny. London: Phil Berry, John Denton, Peter Donaghy, Mike Hogan, Fred Jepson, Linda Kietz, Cyril Onyejekwe, Spike Wood. Newport (South Wales): Reginald Kelly. Northern Ireland: David Bell, Alfie McGill. Oldham & Rochdale: Des Carney. Pontypridd (Mid Glamorgan) Nicola Redhead. Scotland: John Brown. HQ: Sylvia Boyce. 7.4 LAWYERS The union does not regard the ET Panel as a substitute for engaging professional lawyers, where the complexity and weight of cases require it. The sheer number of cases this year has increased usage of our Solicitors. Our main national solicitors, Simpson Millar, have worked closely with us on a number of cases, have supported the ET Panel team and have given sessions on legal matters on training courses and seminars. Through them, we also have had access to very able barristers to represent members in the more complex legal cases. We also receive regular advice on specific issues raised with us at all levels of the organisation and by both the Telecoms & Financal Services and Postal Executives. 14 l National Executive Council Annual Report 2006-2007
7.5 EDUCATION For part of the year, the Department continued to support the union’s education courses on a range of Employment Law issues. In addition, the Officer attended branch and regional events to discuss various aspects of the Employment Tribunal system. 7.6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As the Acting Assistant Secretary, I would like to place on record my personal thanks and gratitude to all the staff of the Employment Law Department, Sylvia Boyce, Anne de la Haye and Carolyn Lockwood. Their hard work and dedication has been greatly appreciated during my time in the office. The Department would also like to thank all of the ET Panel Team for their help in assessing cases on our behalf and for their excellent representation of many CWU members. Last but not least, we would also want to thank all those Branch Officers who have liaised with members and who have given us their support and assistance during the year. OTHER MEMBERSHIP SERVICES Throughout 2006 the union continued to offer a number of membership services with our existing affinity partners, these are as follows: Insurance products Financial (loans & credit cards) Eye-care Motor breakdown Car leasing Union Energy Holiday, Hotel and Home Improvement offers Full details of all of these are contained on the Membership Benefits page of the CWU web site. However during 2006 the MSC took the decision to re-examine this area. As a result the SDGS has been working with an Independent Financial Advisor to explore new area of services that the CWU can offer to its members. These products are in the final process of development and will be launched gradually during 2007. COMMUNICATIONS 1. IMPROVING COMMUNICATIONS A number of changes were made to Communications last year including re-organising the department, introducing Communications policies to ensure best practice across the union and measuring all of our output. The next year will see us increase our efforts in measuring readership and membership feedback of all of our publications. This will be carried out through a number of different mediums, including readership surveys, on line surveys and direct polling. In addition, we will be introducing new initiatives to increase membership feedback and participation and try to “get to know our members better”. The former of these objectives will include trialling a new text based membership information and feedback system. This will allow us to text instant updates on pay or campaign activities and request feedback instantly from those members signed up. This will probably be trialled around the Royal Mail pay negotiations in the early part of the year. This initiative will also include an online in-depth survey on the CWU website that will endeavour to determine more information about CWU members’ lifestyles and communication preferences. We will continue to build a member contact database for use in campaigns/disputes. This work has been ongoing and we have developed many email and phone numbers for members from the 2006 Royal Mail dispute and this must be rolled out across the union. We are working with the Organising department on this task. It is also hoped the new membership database being developed and managed by the SDGS will assist in the long term maintenance of better contact details. We have also invested in an online email survey system. This can be used at any time to email groups of members on any subject. The opportunities for this are endless. We will use the system to measure output but we are also making this available to all departments who can use the system to consult members’ opinions, poll or build better two-way communication channels with members during key negotiations. 2. CWU PUBLICATIONS VOICE magazine was reduced to six copies with two editions of each issue, industrially split. Our intention is to maintain the same regularity and structure for 2007. This change has proved successful, judged both by anecdotal evidence and by the hard polling we have carried out as measurement. Readership levels are currently very high proving that VOICE is a powerful communications tool but we have a problem with longevity. Our measurement tells us that whilst most members open and look at VOICE and read selected articles, it is thrown out very quickly. There is no surprise to this but our measurement leads us to believe that members would be more likely to read and discuss more of VOICE if it was in the workplace. Accordingly, we have decided to extend the print run and send copies to larger workplaces. We will then measure further response to this to identify any changes in readership activity. A full report on VOICE readership was published to Branches. We have acted on the key findings of that report, including trying to increase space given to letters pages and to cover as many different workplaces/businesses as possible. Another clear positive that emanated from that measurement exercise was that the journalistic style is key to ensuring wide readership. It remains our strategy to work closely with HQ departments to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of VOICE articles but we are increasingly trying to cover workplaces and actual members’ opinions as part of reaching a wider audience. We are working much closer with advisory committees on l National Executive Council Annual Report 2006-2007 15
Page 1: 2006-2007 lThe communications union
Page 4 and 5: Welcome to the CWU’s Annual Repor
Page 6 and 7: POLICY, EDUCATION AND TRAINING RESP
Page 8 and 9: EDUCATION & TRAINING 1. ACTIVISTS E
Page 10 and 11: 5.7 REGIONAL LEARNING COMMITTEES In
Page 12 and 13: 3. BRANCH AND REGIONAL STRUCTURE It
Page 16 and 17: their publications. This has includ
Page 18 and 19: 8. AGE DISCRIMINATION LEGISLATION T
Page 20 and 21: 8. TUC UNION HEALTH AND SAFETY SPEC
Page 22 and 23: a mixture of activities including p
Page 24 and 25: 16th-18th May. SDGS Tony Kearns spo
Page 26: NATIONAL WELFARE FUND CONTINUED BRA

the CWU's Annual Report for 2006-2007

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?