‘All eyes on FCA’ says Unite amid appeal rejection

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‘All eyes on FCA’ says Unite amid appeal rejection

Unite has said all eyes will be on the Financial Conduct Authority to see whether the regulator "will hold a free vote on union recognition" after Unite had its appeal to be the official union rejected.

Unite, the union which represents staff at the regulator, submitted an application to the independent Central Arbitration Committee (Cac) on December 17, asking for it to be recognised as the Financial Conduct Authority’s official union, specifically for collective bargaining on behalf of the regulator’s staff.

This would allow Unite to represent the FCA's staff in negotiations and have control over collective bargaining.

However, in the Cac’s findings published today (May 10), it rejected Unite’s request as it did not feel the majority of the FCA staff would be in favour of the union’s recognition.

“An application is not admissible unless the panel decides that a majority of the workers constituting the proposed bargaining unit would be likely to favour recognition of the union as entitled to conduct collective bargaining on behalf of the bargaining unit,” the Cac said.

But a Unite spokesperson said the statement from the Cac changes nothing for Unite or staff at the FCA. 

“Unite knew from the outset that the Cac process is not a favourable one for trade unions making the case for workplace recognition.

“Unite members at the regulator will continue their industrial action to make their employer listen to their concern and ensure the FCA is the best employer it can be. All eyes are now on FCA management to see if they will hold a free vote on union recognition. Unite will be considering the next steps.”

In its application to the Cac, Unite said it made two requests for recognition to the employer. In one the union explained that the employer had declined its offer to enter voluntary discussions concerning recognition.

An FCA spokesperson said:  “We said that the statutory process for recognition conducted through the independent Central Arbitration Committee was the best way of assessing the views of all colleagues on collective bargaining.

“Following the Cac’s decision, we want to have an open conversation with all our colleagues about how their voice is represented - listening and responding to the diverse range of views and opinions we're proud of at the FCA.”

When asked for its reasons for selecting its proposed bargaining unit, Unite said although some heads of department were members of the union, it was aware that some were in another union who, it believed, had previously been seeking to organise. 

The Cac said in order for an application to be admissible, the panel must decide that members of the union constitute at least 10 per cent of the workers in the proposed bargaining unit. 

The membership check by Cac’s case manager found that 15.18 per cent of the workers in the proposed bargaining unit were members of the union. 

Although the panel was satisfied that this check was conducted properly, it still rejected the application due to a lack of evidence and some discrepancies in Unite’s submission of data.

It said: “The panel notes that there have been challenges with the veracity of the union’s petition.

“The union has acknowledged that there were duplicates and false entries with the initial figure of 2400 in favour reducing to 1473 when the union reviewed the results, which further reduced to 1242 and this figure formed the basis for the support check.”

In its finding, the Cac said union membership provides a “legitimate indicator” of the views of staff in the proposed bargaining unit as to whether they would be likely to favour recognition of the union. 

“No such evidence to the contrary was put forward in this case and the panel is therefore content to assume for the purposes of this decision that members of the union in the proposed bargaining unit favour recognition even though only 451 of those 633 members signed the union’s petition,” it said.

It also noted that 791 non-members, 19.87 per cent of the proposed bargaining unit, signed the union’s petition and on this basis, it had evidence which indicates that 35.05 per cent of workers in the proposed bargaining unit are likely to favour recognition of the union.

However, it concluded: “Having carefully considered the parties’ submissions, the panel does not consider that the evidence before it is sufficient to enable it to conclude, on the balance of probabilities, that a majority of the workers constituting the proposed bargaining unit would be likely to favour recognition of the union as entitled to conduct collective bargaining on behalf of the bargaining unit.”

Strike action

This comes as last week, the FCA’s Unite members took part in the first day of strike action and held placards and flags complaining about changes to pay and conditions of employment.

The strike followed on after members of Unite agreed last month to take part in a work-to-rule, meaning they would work strictly to their contracts of employment, job descriptions and working hours. 

It began after three quarters (75 per cent) of Unite union members voted for the first time in favour of industrial action against the FCA over disputes around changes to pay and conditions.

Some 90 per cent voted to support industrial action short of strike action.

FTAdviser understands that only 61 per cent (380) of the 624 Unite members participated in the vote.

Key concerns by staff included the loss of routine payments labelled ‘bonuses’ which represents 10 to 12 per cent of salary, the narrowing of pay bands, lower pay bands for Scottish staff, cuts affecting graduate trainees, and a threat of future cuts to pensions.

Other concerns by members included a perceived unfair appraisal system and a high level of pay inequality, which Unite said was “unusually high by the standards of public sector regulators”.

sonia.rach@ft.com 

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