By Peter Pendle, Senior Associate, Governance | 4 min
The culture of a union, and the behaviour of its members and activists, stems from the union Rule Book. Get it right and so many problems and disputes can be avoided.
Yet while it is one of the most important aspects of trade unions, rules are often seen as boring. For most union members, they will be of little interest. And whilst the same goes for many activists, others can become obsessed in seeking to revise, amend, exploit or even abuse the rules.
Badly drafted or out of date rules can cause untold problems for union leaders and potentially put it at risk of costly legal action. Over the past two decades I’ve spent a considerable amount of time revising and redrafting union rules for several unions in different sectors and this is what I’ve learned
There are three instances where out of date rules can really make or break a union.
Firstly, during elections where candidates and their supporters may want to maximise their votes by pushing at the boundaries. Unions with different categories of membership may have rules determining who can stand for what elected positions and who is entitled to vote in the elections.
Secondly, during disciplinary action, it is vital that the rules covering this are clearly laid out and followed, both in terms of processing the disciplinary action and potential penalties.
Thirdly, when representation is withheld. The circumstances where this can happen must be clearly laid down in the rules, for example with a qualifying period of membership before representation, where a member takes professional advice from somewhere other than the union, or where the likelihood of success is below the required threshold.
Getting this wrong can not only lead to complaints or worse case, litigation. In most cases, the time consuming correspondence and costs will be a drain on union everyday activities.
If the union is repeatedly being challenged on the rules or receiving multiple complaints, it indicates that there might be a problem. So, how to proceed? The first step is to check what the existing rules say about the process of changing the rules. When changing the rules, there might be other steps to negotiate, for example where more than a simple majority is required or when majorities in favour are required across multiple sections.
Whilst amending can be the best way forward if the rules are fairly recent, a set of rules drafted twenty-five years ago, followed by years of tweaks and amendments, is almost certainly likely to have holes in it. Legislation changes. Language changes. And historically, union rules have been written in legalise impenetrable to members and activists.
If a union needs to rewrite the rules, appoint a project leader and to select a working group to oversee the process. This would probably be composed of members of the national executive committee or equivalent. Every union has activists who delight in discussing the rules, often to the exclusion of the more important parts of their function. Get them involved early on in order to avoid challenges at a later stage. They almost always have helpful contributions to make. Include one or two of them on the working group, or alternatively set up a wider reference group to run proposals past before they get firmed up. The NEC will need to be kept briefed on developments and will of course need to sign off the proposals before they go to conference. Remove as much potential opposition as possible well before getting anywhere near a final vote at conference.
Also consider what else might be included in the rules or its appendices. This might include standing orders for the national executive committee or equivalent, standing orders for the annual conference or AGM, branch or section rules and so on. Many unions now have codes of conduct or ethics guides appended to their rules.
Finally, seek advice. Unions 21 is happy to work with unions across size and sector to ensure that your union rules are relevant and up to date
