By Martin Smith, Senior Associate, Unions 21 | 4 min
The App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU) is a small union set up some five years ago to provide a campaigning vehicle for drivers working for Uber, Bolt and similar companies, but also Deliveroo, Just Eat, Evri and similar courier companies. The union specialises in the licensing, exploitation and worker status issues faced by such workers and provides an authentic voice for drivers and couriers in this space.
Following their successful court ruling in 2019 regarding worker status, the ADCU grew at an enormous rate with the consequence that there wasn't time, capacity, knowledge or experience to put in place all of the necessary administrative, governance and management systems and procedures expected of an established union.
During 2023, personal conflicts emerged at the very top of the union. These were driven partly as a result of the challenges of rapid growth, but also the fall out from the court judgement on Uber, Following a report and inquiry by Karen Monaghan KC, almost the entire NEC stood down and a series of complex complaints were lodged with the Certification Office and Employment Tribunal service.
Faced with the possibility of winding up, the Certification Office, the UK watchdog for trade unions and employer associations. suggested to ADCU that they seek the support of a mainstream union organisation such as Unions 21 to implement the recommendations of Monaghan and put in place a recovery plan as an alternative to facing a wind up order.
In January 2024, we put together a team of six experienced trade union officials to support ADCU on management, governance, HR, legal and digital issues. Our experience has led to a number of lessons for other unions.
The importance of working with the certification officer
The support plan could not have started without the support of the Certification Officer.
In the immediate term this relied on an agreement with the Certification Office that a number of union rules could be temporarily suspended, for example related to quoracy, to enable the union to function and pending a new NEC being elected. In our terms ADCU was placed effectively under "special measures" as a result of our intervention, providing the breathing space to review and reform. A new NEC and General Secretary was elected in Autumn 2024
Take the time to untangle
Secondly a series of legal claims and counter claims between unions members and previous post holders related to allegations of impropriety from all sides had to be disentangled and dealt with in parallel to the rescue plan to avoid this being de-railed. Thompsons have been instrumental in this process in their advice, advocacy and representation role, In particular their liaison with various Police forces on criminal cases related to alleged data theft - which in itself presented a significant obstacle to be overcome before new NEC elections could be launched
Get help
Finally a major challenge arose for the ADCU leaders who remained to carry through the necessary reforms in liaising and communicating with the extensive range of licensing, regulatory and enforcement authorities that they were faced with from Autumn 2023. For the vast majority of ADCU members, and leaders, English is their second or third language and spoken and written English skills of the leadership are more than fit for purpose for running their union. Police Forces, lawyers, the Certification Office, the Employment Tribunal service and other state agencies however deploy a framework of language that could be defined as "Bureaucratic English" which can present unanticipated challenges for ADCU leaders to overcome and negotiate.
Our involvement was able to broker and negotiate solutions to each of these strategic challenges - through negotiation and interpretation between state agencies and legal organisations and through planning of challenges with our partners.
If you’re trying to go into a new area, facing challenges or what some help to think through your union work, contact us on hello@unions21.org
