Talk:Trade unions in the United Kingdom

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United Kingdom

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Haven't there been suggestions in the press that we have worse labour laws than a century ago?--Darrelljon 19:08, 2 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Just some thoughts...

Peculiarities of UK Trades Unions most members belong to large unions and I guess expensive ones. T&G charged £12 a month. That's more than many members have for pension contributions. This is odd in an organisation that often just provides a letterhead for volunteer work.

Peculiarities of UK Trades Union act -members cannot be "unreasonably prevented" from standing for office. In practice the internal structures find ways to prevent everyone standing for senior jobs. -senior posts are elected "by marking ... paper", rather than by implication a show of hands in a smoke-filled room. The trouble is that these paper elections are now more expensive and exclusive than online ones. -less senior positions are not covered by any electoral law except the union's own rule books which in the T&G for example were not even sent to members unless requested.

The Legal Services Bill and its effect on unions -A legal services bill in I think 2006 allowed membership organisations' lawyers to claim a success fee from the loosing side. Since that date, legal insurers and unions such as DAS legal insurance and Transport and General Workers Union have implied that they are taking membership dues to pay for lawyers or even written it in one set of their accounts in the T&G's case, but in another set of accounts admitted that they are charging lawyers for introductions. When lawyers have been investigated by the law society for pretending to union members or insured people that they are being paid by the organisation, murky practices have emerged such as a verbal agreement not to chase bills. In such a situation, it is odd that there have not been large-scale corruption scandals but the risk remains. An employment tribunal case in which a union opposed its ex-employee threw-up this: [1]from the DearUnite.com site - about a Mr Lyons, a man who is himself complaining about election irregularities at Unite to the Certification Office, which has a quasi-judicial role in disputes over union rules: http://www.certoffice.org/pages/index.cfm?pageID=whatsnew

Unions have exemption from the law forcing insurers to register with the Financial Services Authority, a consumer protection organisation that insists on clear contracts and believable accounts for insurers. Unions do register with it, but only for their side-line of selling financial services to the membership list such as pet insurance and credit cards.

A problem of under-funded lawyers is logically that they must settle early and spend less time preparing a case for example by making a bundle of papers. They may be appointed later in the process by a delaying trades union or insurer. Similar constraints apply on volunteer lawyers, so from a public sector employer's perspective, it is always possible to make a case go away by throwing enough money at it. This is something for a disappointment for employees.

Pecularities of the UK political system -there is a tendency for political parties to believe that they need funding. Traditionally, unions have paid "election expenses" to MPs who's local expenses are capped at a low level for all parties and who are paid £65,000 a year plus three staff and a much publicised expenses scheme. Only central party spending is not capped. The labour party has refused an offer from other parties to cap central spending. As with other political donations, it is not clear whether those involved seek or get anything for the money. In practice, trades union law has been left untouched during recent labour governments.

I don't quite know where this belongs and don't think I'm the best person to choose, but just added it to the discussion page in case anyone wants to write anything about UK trades unions. Similar problems probably apply in any country were state parties and trades unions overlap. Veganline (talk) 14:28, 19 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Early trade unions in the United Kingdom[edit]

I pasted this section here directly from the trade union article.--Bookandcoffee 19:55, 20 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]