Return to main page

London Magazine Branch

July 1999

Act now to make the most of the 'Fairness at Work' bill that will become law in the autumn

 
         ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• Crotum gets the axe
   
• Branch meetings
   
• Officer training
   
• Agitator's cookbook
   
• Close call
   
• Pricecheck scandal
   
• Millennium bucks
   
• Branch round-up
   
• Disabled members
   
• Countdown to ADM
   
• Meetings schedule
   

WE HAVE to start working now to make the most of the rights we will gain when the Fairness at Work bill becomes law in late autumn.

The crucial part of the bill for the NUJ is the statutory right to union recognition. To win a workplace ballot for recognition we need the votes of 50% plus one and 40% of those entitled to vote. That is a high hurdle to get over: we could still lose a ballot after getting a 79% vote in favour, if only a bare majority of the employees cast their votes.

Bosses will try to lift the bar even higher by stuffing the "bargaining unit" with managers and people whom they can count on to vote No. This makes recruitment all the more important, but numbers aren't the whole story. We also need to know where our members are to target the firms we are most likely to win a ballot in.

And we need to organise support for members in workplaces where ballots are planned. All this and more will be covered in the practical workshop we are organising for this month's branch meeting.

Know your rights

There are a number of other valuable gains for union members in the new law, even if the many of us who work for small companies, with fewer than 20 employees, don't gain the right to union recognition.

A worker attending a serious disciplinary or grievance hearing will have a right to be accompanied by a trade union representative or co-worker of their choice - irrespective of whether unions are recognised by that employer. The opposition managed to insert the "serious" bit, but how much of a dilution that will prove in practice is uncertain.

Workers who are sacked in the first eight weeks of a "protected" strike can automatically claim unfair dismissal, and can still do so after that period if the employer has not taken reasonable steps to resolve the strike. What "protected" means exactly is unclear, however.

Waiting to enter the ring

In the middle of June the bill was only at the Lords committee stage. No date has been set for the report stage. The best guess is that it will pass into law in October.

But various provisions will come into force at different times. The improved rights on time off for family responsibilities may come into force soonest, even though the detailed regulations have not yet been published.

However, ministers say they will raise the statutory minimum maternity leave period from 14 to 18 weeks, and reduce the qualifying period for 40 weeks' leave from two years to one year. The Fairness at Work bill also gives ministers powers to issue regulations on time off for domestic emergencies, paternity leave and a number of changes to the law on agency workers. Parental leave is likely to be up to three months, unpaid.

The union recognition rules are unlikely to be in force until the end of the year at the earliest. This is because it will take time to set up the bureaucratic infrastructure of a Central Arbitration Committee. This body will rule, for instance, on the size of a bargaining unit that should be balloted if the union and management cannot agree.

Return to top

Crotum on the
chopping block

THE Commissioner for the Rights of Trade Union Members is a publicly funded body which has helped disgruntled individual members sue their own unions, often on nakedly political grounds. The NUJ is one of the unions that has been attacked with its own members' tax money.

The CROTUM gets the chop under the new law, as does the Commissioner for Protection Against Unlawful Industrial Action. But a date for their execution has yet to be fixed.

Branch meetings

ALL branch meetings are held in Room 2D at the University of London Union.
The meeting will begin as soon as possible after 6.30pm. The meeting will finish by 8.00pm. There is a bar with very attractive prices and a cafe.

The branch is very happy to pay any member's baby-sitting expenses to allow them to attend meetings. Please see the treasurer if you require assistance. There is also a creche at the University of London Union. Please phone a member of the branch committee a week before the meeting to book a place.

If you are trying to organise a chapel at your workplace, we can help with leafleting, booking a room or providing a speaker. Just e-mail us from the bottom of this or any page.
Future meetings schedule

Get Ready
for Change

THIS new NUJ booklet offers essential advice, tips and assistance in organising and recruiting.

Call Deirdre Doherty for copies on 0171 843 3710

THE NUJ is running a two-day course in October to provide chapel officers with the skills they need to assist members with problems, health and safety issues, employment rights, company procedures and handling grievances and disciplinaries.

The course runs 5-6 October in central London.

The union will pay full travel and accommodation expenses for members who attend the course.

If you want to take part, write to Linda Rogers at Acorn House by 10 September, stating your name, address, daytime phone, chapel position and whether you require accommodation.

This course is not just for established or recognised chapels - anyone who thinks they can make use of these skills building the union at work is welcome to attend.

Return to top

Your vote
REALLY
does count

BRANCH member Chris Wheal has been elected to the National Executive Committee to represent one of the London Geographical seats. Chris got 430 votes to his rival Marc Wadsworth's 429. Chris would really, really like to thank that member, whoever he or she is.

The Price is far
from right

Millennium bucks

THE NUJ has signed a number of deals with broadcasters covering work over the Millennium holiday period. The BBC deal adds up to as much as £600 for working past midnight on 31 December.

"I WILL NOT RECOGNISE ANY UNION! If they don't like it they don't have to work here." Does that sound familiar?

For once it is not a publisher talking. Those are the words of Manzoor Chaudhary, who owns the Pricecheck chain of supermarkets. He is determined not to recognise the TGWU even though at least 80% of his shopworkers have joined it. They are asking trade unionists to boycott his nine stores.

Deterred by the thought of losing a court-full of unfair dismissal cases for just firing union members, Mr Chaudhary has been demoting and harassing them instead. Numerous industrial tribunal cases are now pending although the staff have not as yet gone on strike.

Investigative journalists with time on their hands may like to consider whether there is any connection between Mr Chaudhary's considerable wealth and his staff's allegations concerning their tax and national insurance payments. His property empire also brings in a substantial revenue from lettings.

Protest to Manzoor Chaudhary, Pricecheck, 250/254 Kentish Town Road, London NW5

For information call the TGWU, 340 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1

Return to top

FEW magazine fulltimers will find themselves being asked to work on 31 December and 1 January, but some freelances in the branch occasionally work on the nationals.
The Independent chapel is claiming an extra £250 for staff working up to 6pm on 31 December, plus a further £100 (total £350) for working after 6pm, plus two days off in lieu. The chapel is also claiming an extra £250 (total £600) for those working over midnight 31 December/1 January (plus four lieu days). For those working during the day on 1 January, the chapel wants an extra £250 on normal rates plus two lieu days. All volunteers only, of course.
Daily Mail staff are asking for an extra £500 for the Millennium night.
For more information, have a look at Incomes Data Services' site: www.incomesdata.co.uk/
report/weekend2000.htm

Branch round-up

Disabled member
representation

LAST month's branch meeting heard a vigorous debate around the issues of free speech and reporting on the activities of fascist organisations. The debate was introduced by veteran anti-fascist journalist Gerry Gable, publisher of Searchlight magazine.

The meeting was also addressed by two TGWU members involved in a dispute for union recognition at Pricecheck.

Several dozen new members have joined the branch since the May meeting, and all were approved for membership. No motions were passed at the meeting.

Since the meeting, John Toner, the servicing officer of the NUJ's policy committee has written to the branch explaining what has become of the motion we passed in May asking the union to take whatever steps were necessary to allow branches to vote on affiliation to the Anti Nazi League

He wrote: "The Committee's view is that, in line with the NUJ rule book, the union can only affiliate to organisations after a majority of members voting in a ballot has instructed it to do so. Such a ballot has to follow a decision of ADM (Annual Delegate Meeting).

If you wish to pursue this issue I would suggest your best cause of action would be for your branch to table a motion to the next ADM."

The proposers of the original motion have submitted it as an ADM motion to the July branch meeting. If passed, the motion would go on to the agenda of next April's ADM.

Return to top

NEW rules agreed at this year's conference allow the Disabled Members Council to have representatives on each of the union's industrial bodies, and branches can nominate people to be these representatives.

Our branch can nominate someone to represent the interests of disabled members not just on the magazines and books industrial council, but also the freelance, broadcasting, newspapers and agencies, PR and information and Scottish bodies

If you want to nominate someone, either raise it at this month's branch meeting personally, or mail the Report editor with details (and, of course, check they are willing to stand).

Win a trip to Ennis

Countdown to Ennis

WHERE? Ennis, on the west coast of Ireland, where the NUJ will hold its annual conference in April 2000.

Ennis is also a rather more attractive place than Eastbourne, the venue for our last conference, so we might see many more candidates putting themselves forward for election as delegates this time.

We have to elect our delegation no later than the 10 January branch meeting to meet the timetable laid down for for voting on motions, amendments and delegates. The branch is entitled to send eight delegates.

The Annual Delegate Meeting (ADM) itself runs 6 to 9 April, so the branch will get a very fresh report back on 10 April (though our delegates will be anything but fresh by then).

The timetable also means that the branch's last opportunity to send a motion to ADM will be our November meeting. And because members must receive seven days' notice of motions, in practice your motion has to reach the Report editor no later than 22 October.

So, if there is something you think the union should be doing nationally - or should stop doing - get scribbling soon.

Return to top

ADM motions and nominations to the NEC must be in by
22 November 1999

The preliminary ADM agenda will be issued on
20 December 1999

Amendments to motions already contained in that agenda, and names of ADM delegates, must be received by
7 February 2000

Final agenda will be issued
28 February 2000

Annual Delegate Meeting
6-9 April 2000

Branch meeting schedule