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5. EIS POLITICAL FUNDThe EIS was formed to promote sound learning and to advance the interests of educationin Scotland but more recently the objectives have been extended to include the interestsand welfare of teachers and lecturers generally in Scotland.The EIS protects and advances the interests of its members by negotiating with employerson matters such as pay, hours, working conditions and pensions. The EIS also providessupport and protection to members when they are most needed.The EIS cannot operate in a vacuum as the interests and welfare of members are affectedby events elsewhere including the state of the economy, the policies of local and centralGovernment as well as legal provisions governing, for example, employment.Trade Union Legislation makes clear the rights of unions to pursue the interests of theirmembers through political activities although, where a union does so, the cost must be metfrom a separate “Political Fund”.The EIS has, from 1 September 1988, operated a Political Fund which is maintained bymeans of a separate political levy of £1.80 per year payable by its members over andabove the normal EIS subscription and payable on the occasion of a member’s generalsubscription.All members are strongly urged to pay the political levy.Any member, who wishes to contract out of contributing to the political levy, must givenotice in the form laid down by the 1992 Trade Union and Labour Relations(Consolidation) Act and by the EIS Constitution or in a form to the like effect.The terms of the 1984 Act state that unions are required to ballot once every ten years onrenewal of their political fund. The EIS political fund was set up in 1987 following a ballot inwhich the overwhelming majority of EIS members supported the setting up of such a fund.In the latest ballot held in 2007, the vast majority of members who voted supported thecontinuation of the fund.A political fund protects the EIS against legal challenges to the campaigning role of theunion and allows the EIS to continue its vital work as a union in forcefully putting the casefor quality education at all levels.Without a political fund the EIS would not be able to maintain a high profile on issuescentral to the interests of education – e.g. the major campaign conducted prior to the2007 Scottish Parliament elections, encouraging electors to vote on educational issues.The EIS is not affiliated to any political party.The EIS has no intention of engaging in any party political campaign and members shouldnote that the EIS Constitution contains a provision that prevents the EIS from affiliating toany political party unless such a proposal has been approved by a majority of EISmembers voting in a ballot on that particular proposal.Members who contract out of paying the political fund levy will not, by reason of their beingexempt from the obligation to contribute to the Political fund of the EIS, be excluded fromany of the benefits of membership of the EIS or placed in any respect, either directly orindirectly, under any disability or disadvantage as compared with other members of theEIS. Contribution to the Political Fund of the EIS is not a condition for admission to the EIS.14September 2012