Chapter 16 - TUC Organisation

Chapter 16

TUC organisation

16.1 introduction

This chapter reports on links with affiliates; the work of the General Council which has not been covered by the specific policy issues reported in earlier chapters; and the TUC's internal organisation and services, including the TUC's finances and staffing matters.

16.2 Congress awards

The General Council have selected, from the nominations received from unions, the following trade unionists to receive the 1999 Congress Awards. The awards will be presented at Congress.

· Women's Gold Badge Joy Moss MSF

· Men's Gold Badge Norman Kennedy T&G

· Congress Award for Youth Jane Andrews T&G

16.3 General Council

The General Council have met seven times during the Congress year and will meet again in the week before Congress. At their first meeting in Blackpool they elected Hector MacKenzie as Chair. Mr MacKenzie will preside at Congress. The General Council also appointed David Evans, Maureen Rooney and Eddie Warrillow to fill the vacancies on the Executive Committee.

A special residential meeting of the General Council was held at the GMB College in Manchester on 20-21 October. As well as conducting normal business, the meeting discussed the economic outlook, unemployment and pay with presentations on the international context from John Evans of TUAC and Stephen Pursey of the ICFTU. They also heard an address by Lodewijk De Waal of the Dutch national trade union centre FNV, who spoke of the transformation of the FNV over recent years in terms of increasing membership: building a new image and branding; and the relationships with the wider European trade union movement. The General Council also discussed employment law: looking at progress on legislation and campaigning activities. They also considered the issues for unions arising from the changes in the legislation now taking place.

Following a decision taken during the previous Congress year, general secretaries of unions who are not members of the General Council were invited to attend the December meeting of the Council, as observers. The meeting was also attended by the Minister of State at the DTI, Ian McCartney, who spoke about the Governmentplans for legislation based on the Fairness at Work White Paper (see also Chapter 2).

The February meeting of the General Council was attended by the Secretary of State for Social Security, Alistair Darling, who described the Government's plans to modernise the welfare state in order to meet the needs of a society which was very different from that which existed at the time it was created. (see also Chapter 8).

At their May meeting the General Council heard from the President of the Council, Margaret Beckett, who discussed the Government's action to counter the 'Millennium Bug' and action which unions could take to support the Government's work (see also Chapter 7).

In July the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott attended the General Council and spoke on the Government's plans to conduct a review of health and safety (see also Chapter 10).

16.4 Composition of the General Council

The 1998 Congress remitted to the General Council a motion calling for a review of the composition of the General Council with a view to increasing the representation of the smaller or specialist unions. In December the General Council agreed to seek unions' views on this issue and comments were requested by the end of May so that a report could be made to Congress. Twenty six unions responded to the invitation to comment and, whilst the majority supported the call for an increase in the representation of smaller unions on the General Council -though with no consensus on the scale of the change demanded, three unions called for no change, one proposed a reduction in the size of the General Council and Executive, one called for the introduction of a 'trade group' system for the General Council and two suggested that for two meetings a year all general secretaries be regarded as full members of the General Council. The basis of the argument for increased representation of the smaller unions was that whilst the majority of affiliates fell into this category they were only entitled to a small minority of seats on the General Council. On the other hand it was argued that General Council members from the large unions already represented far more trade unionists per General Council seat than those from the smaller unions.

Whilst unions were being consulted on this issue the Millennial Challenge consultation - reported in full in Chapter 1 - was initiated and since one of the issues raised in that consultation concerned the future structure of the trade union movement, and as part of that the future relationship between larger affiliates and specialist unions, it was decided that further discussion on the composition of the General Council should take place in the context of that exercise. One forum in which the Millennial Challenge is to be considered further is the special meeting of the General Council to be held at Stoke Rochford, Lincolnshire on 19-20 October 1999 and it was therefore agreed, following the precedent set at the General Council's December 1998 meeting, to invite all general secretaries to attend that meeting. Other issues raised during the consultation, such as the TUC's sectoral work, will also be considered further in the context of the Millennial Challengediscussions. The original remitted motion also raised the question of whether larger affiliates should be entitled to additional Congress motions, the General Council decided that this proposal should not be pursued and did not invite comments from affiliates. However a number did choose to comment, all but one supported the General Council's view. The other submission supported the case for larger affiliates being entitled to additional Congress motions with the number of motions being linked to their total membership.

16.5 Amendment to Rule 4

At their meeting in June the General Council considered both the responses from unions on the composition of the General Council, referred to above, and the membership figures from unions which are provided in order that unions can be allocated to the appropriate sections for the elections to the General Council which take place at Congress. They noted that following the merger of BIFU, Unifi and the Nat West Staff Association to form UNIFI, Unifi's membership no longer counted towards the total membership of Section C - unions with fewer than 100,000 members. As a result the total membership of Section C had fallen below the 960,000 threshold specified in Rule 4 as required to entitle those unions to elect seven members of the General Council. According to the rules the number of seats in section C would therefore fall to six for the 1999 - 2000 Congress year. The General Council considered that this would run counter to the views expressed in the majority of responses to the consultation on the composition of the General Council and therefore agreed to use their powers under Rule 15 (a) - amendment of Rules and Standing Orders - and amend Rule 4 to ensure that the total number of seats in section C remained at seven. The detailed rule change was considered and approved by the General Council in July. The rule change removed from the formula set out in Rule 4 (a) the category " 800,000 to 959,000 - 6 seats" and replaced the category "960,000 to 1,119,999 - 7 seats" with the words "up to 1,119,999 - 7 seats". In accordance with Rule 15, the amended rule is binding on unions until overruled by Congress and the full text of the amended rule is included in the rules printed at the back of this report.

16.6 Lead responsibilities

The lead responsibilities for the 1998 -1999 Congress Year were as follows:

General

Overall responsibility as lead spokesperson for the TUC	The General Secretary
Senior representative throughout year of office	The President Hector MacKenzie

Specific areas of responsibility

Economic Affairs - Full employment	Rodney Bickerstaffe
Employment law - fairness at work	Bill Morris
Europe Monitoring Group	John Edmonds
International	Sir Ken Jackson
Women	Rita Donaghy
Race Relations	Bob Purkiss
Disability	Pat Hawkes
Gay and Lesbian Rights	Ed Sweeney
Education and Training	Tony Dubbins
Pensions	Tony Young
New Unionism Project	Tony Burke
Health and Safety	Anne Gibson
Learning Services	Jimmy Knapp
Environment and Sustainable Development	John Edmonds
Stakeholding	Roger Lyons
Transport	Bill Morris
TUC Regions	Bill Morris
Trades Union Councils	Jimmy Knapp
Health Services	Hector MacKenzie
Local Government	Doug McAvoy
Young People	Anne Gibson
Energy	Roger Lyons
Construction	George Brumwell

16.7 Disputes between unions

During the year the TUC has continued its efforts to conciliate in disputes between unions which have been reported by unions, or which have come to the notice of the TUC.

The TUC conciliation meetings normally follow a national level meeting between disputing unions where an agreed resolution of the issue(s) in dispute could not be reached (a national level meeting between disputing unions is a requirement of the TUC Disputes Procedures). Conciliation between affiliated trade unions is carried out under the chairmanship of Brendan Barber, Deputy General Secretary, or Brian Ward, Union Relations Officer.

Conciliation meetings, as well as dealing with an immediate issue, can also help toidentify areas of difficulty and potential difficulty between unions where specific inter-union procedures for the avoidance and settlement of disputes and spheres of influence agreements would be advantageous. Where it becomes apparent that such procedures and agreements would be of advantage then the conciliation discussions are developed in this direction.

During the year 34 disputes were reported to the TUC under the disputes machinery of Congress. These were either dealt with by the unions after advice by the TUC on procedure or the issues in dispute or both, or resolved through TUC conciliation meetings. Only one such dispute has needed to be referred to a Disputes Committee for consideration and this is set out in Appendix 3.

The Report of an Award by a Disputes Committee which could not be included in the 1998 General Council Report, because the hearing took place after the Report went to press, is also set out in Appendix 3.

16.8 Union Energy

As reported to Congress last year Union Energy Ltd was established, as a new venture for the TUC to market cheaper gas and electricity to union members, in collaboration with Scottish Power a major energy supply partner. Formally established in March 1997, Union Energy was launched in May the same year and after a six month period of seeking an appropriate partner, concluded a deal with Scottish Power in November. The scheme was formally launched to unions early in 1998.

Although Union Energy is run on commercial lines with the directors providing a mix of professional, energy, financial and commercial skills, it was always the intention, consistent with union values, to pursue the best possible deal for members rather than short-term opportunism. Union Energy is a partnership -with participating unions and with SP helping them to market the products to the membership.

Since launching the scheme some 49 affiliated unions have agreed to sign up, in addition a small number of non-affiliated unions have also joined, several of these unions have subsequently become affiliated to the TUC. There are now some 5.7 million union members that are potentially eligible for Union Energy's products. Once a union agrees to participate in the scheme, a marketing plan is drawn up tailored to the specific requirements of that union. This includes advertising in journals, attendance at annual conferences, where appropriate, and workplace activities.

The energy market has now become fully open (the last stage of electricity was opened up in May this year) and there are around 20 companies offering either gas or combined gas and electricity as well as a small number of partnership arrangements like Union Energy.

Union Energy has a growing customer base which is well into five figures and can offer a very competitive deal to union members. The main terms of the deal are as follows: union members receive up to 20 per cent saving on gas and up to ten per cent saving on electricity depending on the amount used, payment method andgeographical location. In addition union members benefit from a standing charge waiver in December and January. A key part of the offer was the price guarantee negotiated with Scottish Power, that over the five year period of the contract the unit price of gas and electricity would always be within five per cent of the lowest price on offer.

Experience has shown that so far, in most cases, Union Energy has been the cheapest supplier in each region. The offer to members also includes payment protection insurance in the event that a member becomes redundant.

Apart from gas and electricity, Union Energy has also been developing a number of other products to help members reduce their energy bills even further. In March Union Energy, in partnership with National Energy Services, was awarded £71,000 by the Energy Savings Trust to promote a scheme which encouraged members to install energy conservation measures paid for mainly from savings in fuel costs. An essential feature of the scheme is the completion of a self-assessment home energy survey which in turn provides the member with a report of how effective their home is currently conserving energy and what further steps could be taken to improve the position. Approved installers and suppliers have been appointed in a number of areas such as insulation, heating controls and boilers and low energy lighting.

Around the time of Congress, Union Energy will also be launching a boiler breakdown service which is being run in conjunction with Scottish Power, the supply partner.

16.9 Unionlaw

It was reported to the 1998 Congress that the Law Society had indicated its intention to pull out of the Unionlaw scheme, as it could no longer support schemes which did not make money. Unionlaw is a free scheme which offers union members initial diagnostic advice from participating solicitors on non-workplace legal issues. Those unions which use the scheme are supplied with the names and addresses of participating solicitors, which the TUC keeps updated.

During this Congress year, the TUC has been running the scheme on its own, with the agreement of the Law Society, while discussing with various trade union law firms the possibility of involving one or more of them in the running of the scheme. This would lift the heavy administrative burden from the TUC, although it would also be likely to involve a reduction in the number of participating solicitors. A number of unions now make their own arrangements for providing legal advice of this sort to their members. Before proceeding with any new arrangements, the TUC will consult all participating unions.

16.10 TUC finances

In last year's report to Congress it was noted that because union membership was continuing to fall there was likely to be continued pressure on TUC finances. During the year that pressure increased. The Accounts for 1998 show that the TUC lost just over £300,000 compared with a surplus of £70,000 in 1997. Apart from union membership, of which there was a further loss of 120,000 members in 1997, other key factors were very much lower than planned income from conferencesand functions, including in the new Invision Suite in Congress Centre. One factor in this was a sharp increase in the TUC's internal use of all the facilities in Congress House arising from an increase generally in the level of TUC activity following the 1997 election.

A further cause for concern was the position of the Trade Union Education Trust. The Trust is financed by tax efficient grants from the TUC. The reduction in the TUC's taxable income has meant a reduction in the amount of tax the Trust could reclaim. This in turn meant there was an increasing gap between income into the Trust and the expenditure incurred in running the education service (maintained at broadly a similar level to that delivered when public funding support was available). The income from the Bank of Scotland royalties scheme linked to the TUC credit card did provide a welcome boost to trust income of around £330,000 but there remained an accumulated deficit of some £290,000. This meant that the Admin Fund had to bear the full cost of the education service in 1998. It should be noted that in future years income from credit card royalties should eliminate the rest of the accumulated deficit.

It was against this background that budget plans for 1999 were prepared. An interim Administration Fund budget was drawn up making a number of assumptions including: a reduction in expenditure on the regional education services of £80,000; and a tighter budget for the NEC. Considerable progress was made in 1998 in the NEC's commercial performance, with a net running cost -other than a capital project - of £510,000. The target for 1999 is to reduce that to £400,000. Plans were also made for some reduction in routine administrative and office costs and a further staff reduction in the region of 12 posts including several at senior levels in the TUC. The staff reduction exercise was undertaken in the spring with applications invited for the voluntary redundancy/ early retirement scheme as in previous staff reduction exercises. Some changes were also made in the TUC departmental structure at the same time. These included bringing together the International Department and the Europe Unit to form the European Union and International Relations Unit within the Secretary's Department. It was also agreed that following the retirement of the Assistant General Secretary, David Lea at the time of Congress, the post of AGS would not be filled. In addition to these changes others ways of boosting income from conference and meeting services were put in place following some preliminary advice from Gardner Merchant.

Affiliation fee rate

In previous years, the TUC's affiliation fee has been based on a formula using the weighted average of the main contribution rate in each affiliated union. However, a combination of falling membership and static contribution rates among affiliates meant that the formula in 1999 would have produced an affiliation fee of 169 pence. This would have been insufficient to meet the demands placed on the TUC and the range of major tasks. At the Special General Council last October it was agreed that an exceptional supplement to the annual rate of 5 pence to 174 pence per member would be payable for the third and fourth quarters of 1999. In considering the affiliation fee the General Council also agreed to amend Rule 3(d) to add the word "increase" to the range of options the revised section of the rule therefore reads: "the General Council shall, by 31October in each year, confirm, increase or reduce, the percentage figure in accordance with the TUC work programme and priorities as decided by Congress in that year." This rule change is subject to confirmation by Congress under Rule 15.

Development Fund

This Fund was established to promote the General Council's new work and campaigning initiatives. As agreed at the 1995 Congress, ten per cent of each year's affiliation fee income is allocated to the Fund to finance such work. In 1998, this raised £1.087 million, while the budget for income from this source in 1999 will be £1.134 million, an increase of 4.3 per cent.

In 1998 the income was used to fund a number of projects and campaigns, under the following general headings:

· continuing work on organising and recruitment, based mainly on the New Unionism initiative and the Organising Academy, which entered its second year of operation

· further work around the National Minimum Wage, Fairness at Work, the New Deal and the social partnership

· extending and developing various Regional Bargaining for Skills initiatives and adding work on the Union Learning Fund and a variety of Adapt/Objective Four projects

· maintaining the TUC presence in key areas of pensions policy, such as stakeholder pensions and integration with the State pensions' scheme

In December 1998, the General Council agreed plans for 1999 Development Fund expenditure. These plans included work in the following key areas:

· continuing to put forward the TUC's position in the related areas of Fairness at Work, New Deal and social partnership

· consolidating and developing the work already done in the area of organisation and recruitment and supporting the various New Unionism initiatives

· further work on pensions, benefit reform and health and safety at work

· developing and enhancing TUC communications (including the Millennium Film project)

· investing in TUC use of new technology.

Statement of Accounts 1998

The annual Statement of Accounts for 1998 and the Balance Sheet at 31 December 1998 are set out in Appendix 2.

The revised format of the accounts, first used in 1995, has been retained for 1998 with the aim of showing the TUC's overall financial performance at a glance.

Overall the TUC had a deficit in 1998 of £320,000, compared with a surplus in 1997 of £70,000. As in previous years, the pattern of expenditure between the two funds was significantly different, while the Development Fund in 1998 showed a surplus of £209,000 the deficit on the Admin Fund (which covers day-to-day office running expenses and staff costs) was £529,000. The main reasons for this were noted as above.

The TUC's Balance Sheet showed that net assets fell by just over four percent in 1998 to £5.636 million. This was due mainly to the additional loan finance to fund continuing building refurbishment works at Congress House. However, the Balance Sheet generally remained strong, particularly in the areas of cash and investments; the organisation's strong cash flow and the improvements in the economy were helpful in these areas.

16.11 NSPCC - charity of the year

In January the Executive Committee agreed to make the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children's Full Stop Campaign the TUC's 'charity of the year'. The aim of the campaign is to raise £250 million in order to 'eradicate cruelty to children within a generation'. The money would be used to establish a range of measures at local and national level offering protection for children within the community, work with families, schools, the creation of safe environments for children and a range of campaigning measures to highlight the issue of child cruelty. Unions were encouraged to give their support to the campaign and NSPCC staff have liaised with a number of unions to assist in developing fund raising initiatives. The Full Stop campaign has the support of a wide range of organisations and individuals. The Appeal Board, which the General Secretary joined following the Executive Committee's decision, is chaired by the Duke of York and has in membership representatives of a wide range of commercial and other organisations. The Full Stop campaign was launched in March at an event attended by the Duke of York, by the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition and by a wide range of people from the world of business and entertainment. The campaign sent letters seeking support to every household and was promoted through television and poster advertisements. It was also featured prominently at Wembley Stadium on FA Cup Final day. A number of unions have made major fund raising commitments and a further report on the campaign will be given to Congress.

In deciding to support the NSPCC the Executive were conscious that the TUC also has commitments to other charitable causes including TUCAid, which continues to help provide relief and assistance around the world (see Chapter 13). They also recognised that many unions have their own commitments to a range of charitable causes. They therefore viewed this initiative as a pilot, and in light of experience will consider during the next Congress year, whether to nominate another charity as the TUC's 'charity of the year'. If this is done the incoming president of Congress will be invited to play a prominent role in the selection of the charity and a balance will be sought over time between domestic charities and those workingpredominantly overseas.

16.12 The Industrial Society

In October the General Council agreed to affiliate to the Industrial Society. The TUC has worked closely with the Industrial Society on a number of projects -including most recently the anti-bullying project reported in Chapter 15. Forty three individual unions are affiliated to the society and membership will entitle the TUC to access Industrial Society resources. Affiliation was also seen as a demonstration of support for the work of the Society in promoting best practice in management and encouraging partnership between employers and employees.

16.13 Congress Centre - Congress House

Major changes have been introduced this year with the aim both of increasing the facilities available for TUC use at Congress House and increasing the income from the Congress Centre. A new booking system has been introduced and, in conjunction with this, a new Conference Sales and Marketing Co-ordinator has joined the staff.

The former restaurant is being converted into a multi-purpose suite offering a choice of either one large room suitable for receptions and presentations or four smaller ones for private dining and or break-out meeting rooms designed to complement Congress Hall. Congress Hall will also undergo some refurbishment with a new colour scheme, registration area, chairs and audio visual equipment.

Business levels have been good this year with many repeat bookings with a high usage of associations and affiliates using Congress Hall for annual events. A number of universities and colleges have continued to hold their end of year degrees shows and examinations at Congress Centre.

The key objective of the marketing plan this year is to increase occupancy levels and to promote the recently refurbished facilities, in this respect a new brochure and menu pack has been produced, several open evenings are scheduled and advertisements have been planned to create awareness of the new facilities. To promote the Christmas Party season a Christmas pack will also be sent to new and existing clients.

Other building projects taking place in Congress House include the installation of a new security system and the refurbishment of office accommodation into open plan working areas.

16.14 Information Service

This year the Information Service has been involved in developing the TUC web site to include more information and documents from policy staff, plus information about staff vacancies, conferences and TUC publications. A TUC intranet (a TUC-only web site) has been set up and will be developed in the coming year to include information published for and by the staff - for example the staff handbook, departmental information, meeting minutes etc. The TUC MAIL is already available in this part of the web site for affiliated unions to access. Passwords are given to general secretaries or designated staff and the web site is updated when each new issue is sent out. It is planned to put further documents such as Committee minutes on this private area of the site (known as an Extranet).

New information services being developed for TUC staff include an alerting service known as Inside Work. This service was launched in January by the British Library in partnership with the TUC, UNISON, the CBI and other organisations related to the world of work. The service is available to unions and other non-profit making organisations for a small annual fee via a password on the World Wide Web. It holds the contents pages of 20,000 journal titles and conference papers. The database can be searched for articles of interest or the tables of contents of a specific journal title can be viewed. Staff will be able to set up their own profile searches on chosen topics, and be alerted by email when articles or publications that match their search are added to the database.

Other new web-based services introduced in 1998-99 which staff can access from their pcs include Butterworths Legislation Direct (Statutes and Statutory Instruments), Halsburys Laws and Eurolaw, which includes the Celex EU legislative database.

The TUC is currently upgrading its computer technology to Windows NT both on the network and to the desk top, with many staff getting new and faster machines. The Information Service has been assisting IT staff in the roll-out of this new technology, due to be completed by the end of November 1999. The introduction of new, integrated applications such as Word, Microsoft Explorer and Microsoft Outlook will facilitate the introduction of a number of new information tools, such as Inside Work, which are based on internet and web technology.

The Information Service has continued to carry out research and answer enquiries from TUC staff on a wide range of topics using the World Wide Web, CD ROMs, online databases and printed publications. A number staff of affiliated unions are also regular users of the service. This work mostly involves searching for specific company information such as news stories, financial information, lists of directors, information on the activities of the company and of key personnel. In addition, the Information Service also fields enquiries that come in via email from the TUC web site. Many of these are from students and the general public looking for information on work-related issues. The development of the TUC web site has resulted in most of these enquiries being satisfied by directing people to the relevant part of the site, which saves a great deal of staff time.

16.15 TUC Library Collections

The collections at the University of North London continue to attract a wide range of researchers and have now been joined by the Workers' Educational AssociationLibrary and Archive. During the year, a British Library funded cataloguing project on the WEA Collections, the Gertrude Tuckwell Collection and the Marjorie Nicholson Papers was completed, and a conservation survey of the main collections was carried out.

In addition to holding material deposited by the TUC, a collection development policy has been agreed to ensure that current British trade union publications are acquired and made available to researchers. Since January 1999, all new material is listed on the University Library's Web searchable online catalogue. The collections have their own Website which provides more details of holdings.

The Library works closely with the Centre for Trade Union Studies, based at the University, which now offers a postgraduate course in labour and trade union studies as well as undergraduate courses.

16.16 Tolpuddle

Last year's Congress was informed about plans to upgrade the Museum at Tolpuddle and completely redesign and renew the interpretation of the Martyrs' Story including using multi-media techniques, to give the Museum a wider appeal especially for young people. The concept and plans were exhibited last year in the Museum around the time of the annual rally. The likely total cost of this work together with some minor building work improvements was expected to be around £100,000. It was agreed by the General Council that an appeal should be launched in the Movement to raise the money for this work.

In December, a sponsorship document was launched to affiliated unions inviting unions to finance particular aspects of the design and interpretation of the exhibition. In all there were eight different areas for sponsorship. The appeal has been very successful and to date some £140,000 has been raised. A number of unions (T&G, GMB, AEEU, NUT, NAS/UWT and UNISON) have made donations totalling £105,000 and individual donations from members and branches have sofar raised around £15,000. In addition to union contributions the Tolpuddle Martyrs Memorial Trust was awarded £20,000 from the South West of England Regional Development Agency and a number of companies and other organisations have also contributed. Now that a substantial part of the income is available, plans are well advanced for carrying out the refurbishment work which will start in the early autumn and should be completed by the end of the year.

Copyright © 1998 Trades Union Congress

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