Open the books!! Certification Officer decision on members’ rights to scrutinise the union’s accounts
The majority of the Unite Executive Council – ‘The 31’ – have been determined to make sure that Unite the Union is governed rigorously in the interests of Unite members.
Never again must we find ourselves in the situation where millions of pounds of Unite members money is unaccounted for, such as happened with the Birmingham Hotel project.
In order to ensure proper governance and oversight the 31, in the name of the Unite Executive Council, have continually raised questions around Unite finances and other aspects of Unite’s governance.
Sadly, rather than finding an administration willing to work with us, we have encountered nothing but hostile resistance to every effort we have made to ensure transparency and oversight for members. Instead of cooperation we have been met with smears and threats.
As a result of the continuing obstruction a number of us have tabled complaints and one of us recently took a case to the Certification Officer (CO). In a landmark ruling the CO found that the Unite administration had consistently and unjustly obstructed an EC member from gaining access to key financial data. The CO ruling stated:
“The aggravating factors recorded above are extremely serious, and I have not seen any evidence of mitigating factors or been given any adequate explanation for the union’s failure to comply with its statutory obligations. I have therefore concluded that imposing the maximum financial penalty available to the Certification Officer is appropriate and proportionate and should ensure that the Union understands the importance of ensuring greater compliance with members’ rights to access its accounting records in future.”
As part of our efforts to ensure proper governance we also sought to change the EC Chair due to his relentless efforts to stop open debate and democratic decision making. However, despite having won the vote with a clear majority of the EC voting to remove him, Andy Green refused to step down, leaving us with no choice but to take legal action.
In a very disappointing ruling the judge presiding ruled that a two thirds majority was needed to remove our chair effectively meaning that the union’s chair is in place at the behest of a high court judge with the majority will of the Unite EC having been trampled on and ignored.
The 31 believe that this situation cannot be allowed to continue and that lay member oversight and control of our union must be reasserted.
Later this year we will elect a new Executive Council. If you believe in lay member control and believe that our General Secretary and senior officials should be held to account, then we urge you to support our full slate of candidates that will be standing.