Employees.org.uk tests demand for affordable trade union services
John Robertson | 11.12.2007 11:54 | Workers' Movements
Unions do many things, but do the large UK unions do any of them well?
http://www.Employees.org.uk is a test site asking people to express interest in a no-frills union service that could act as a supplement to traditional union membership, doing nothing but provide employment-related legal insurance. If enough people sign-up, the service will launch.
http://www.Employees.org.uk is a test site asking people to express interest in a no-frills union service that could act as a supplement to traditional union membership, doing nothing but provide employment-related legal insurance. If enough people sign-up, the service will launch.
A new pre-launch web site has been made public today at
http://www.employees.org.uk
It allows anyone interested in a new sort of trade union to leave their email address before the launch.
"I think the basic legal insurance could be provided with just one member",says John Robertson, the founder:
"I could set-up a trades union all by myself, but it would be nice to have a few dozen people showing interest before I contact insurers."
John noticed a gap in the market for employment law insurance after getting the sack himself a couple of years ago while a long-standing union member.
"It was a very hard case to loose", says John "but I had to study law while off sick to work it all out."
"I went to complain to something called a union Branch Committee, which I had just found out about, and saw in the minutes that someone else who had been bullied-out from the same employer had been there with the same complaint the month before. All they said was 'a union is not for legal insurance but for solidarity'. They were a committee of about seven elected on a show of about seven hands to represent about a thousand people across a dozen South London employers. It was a bizarre. Their main agenda was giving money to other political hobbies - often connected with the communist party - after the vagues for explanations. It was like dragons den on drugs."
"Towards the end of the time limits for taking the employer to a tribunal, I was suddenly told that I would be allowed a union lawyer if I submitted a tribunal form myself".
"It turned-out this was a scam: the man was a no-win no-fee lawyer who wasn't up to the job. He took the work on condition the other side would settle, and when they didn't settle straight away he left a trail of chaos which the tribunal system seemed to blame me for. The union gave me no choice of lawyer and refused to fund a replacement".
Sadly the case is not unusual. The Bully Online web site [ http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/worbal.htm]
names failure of trades union support as the number one complaint of people contacting it and other employee's charities. As many complaints to bullying helplines are about serial bullies, the statistic suggests that informal, preventative action is lacking in large unions as well as formal legal help.
Unions are hard to sue for bad service as most of them lack a clear contract with members, but there are cases such as Joanne Sherry suing the National Union of Teachers successfully for return of her union dues over a long career
[ http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?c=190&id=331579]
The new union hopes to grow enough to provide advice from human resources workers over the phone to try and prevent problems from reaching the tribunal stage. There are even hopes of funding human resources workers to attend meetings personally, to read papers and build-up a strong network of members, seek recognition from employers, and negotiate fair working conditions.
"One thing at a time though", says John: "I don't want to pretend I can do more than get insurance just yet, and I don't want the workers of the world to unite in my living room all at once till I've tidied it. I'm self employed on another career now and have very little time".
"I expect that non-union members will sign-up to this as an insurance policy, while union members will treat is as a supplement to their main membership".
http://www.employees.org.uk It allows anyone interested in a new sort of trade union to leave their email address before the launch.
"I think the basic legal insurance could be provided with just one member",says John Robertson, the founder:
"I could set-up a trades union all by myself, but it would be nice to have a few dozen people showing interest before I contact insurers."
John noticed a gap in the market for employment law insurance after getting the sack himself a couple of years ago while a long-standing union member.
"It was a very hard case to loose", says John "but I had to study law while off sick to work it all out."
"I went to complain to something called a union Branch Committee, which I had just found out about, and saw in the minutes that someone else who had been bullied-out from the same employer had been there with the same complaint the month before. All they said was 'a union is not for legal insurance but for solidarity'. They were a committee of about seven elected on a show of about seven hands to represent about a thousand people across a dozen South London employers. It was a bizarre. Their main agenda was giving money to other political hobbies - often connected with the communist party - after the vagues for explanations. It was like dragons den on drugs."
"Towards the end of the time limits for taking the employer to a tribunal, I was suddenly told that I would be allowed a union lawyer if I submitted a tribunal form myself".
"It turned-out this was a scam: the man was a no-win no-fee lawyer who wasn't up to the job. He took the work on condition the other side would settle, and when they didn't settle straight away he left a trail of chaos which the tribunal system seemed to blame me for. The union gave me no choice of lawyer and refused to fund a replacement".
Sadly the case is not unusual. The Bully Online web site [
http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/worbal.htm] names failure of trades union support as the number one complaint of people contacting it and other employee's charities. As many complaints to bullying helplines are about serial bullies, the statistic suggests that informal, preventative action is lacking in large unions as well as formal legal help.
Unions are hard to sue for bad service as most of them lack a clear contract with members, but there are cases such as Joanne Sherry suing the National Union of Teachers successfully for return of her union dues over a long career
[
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?c=190&id=331579] The new union hopes to grow enough to provide advice from human resources workers over the phone to try and prevent problems from reaching the tribunal stage. There are even hopes of funding human resources workers to attend meetings personally, to read papers and build-up a strong network of members, seek recognition from employers, and negotiate fair working conditions.
"One thing at a time though", says John: "I don't want to pretend I can do more than get insurance just yet, and I don't want the workers of the world to unite in my living room all at once till I've tidied it. I'm self employed on another career now and have very little time".
"I expect that non-union members will sign-up to this as an insurance policy, while union members will treat is as a supplement to their main membership".
John Robertson
e-mail:
john no spam a t employees dot o r g dot u k
Homepage:
http://www.employees.org.uk
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