Clause 39 - Additional case in which election for president of union not required
Employment Relations Bill
10:45 am
Mr Gerry Sutcliffe (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Employment Relations, Competition and Consumers), Department of Trade and Industry; Bradford South, Labour)
Again, I will try to help the hon. Gentleman by explaining the clause. If he requires further information, I will try to provide it.
The law requires that senior union officials should be elected by postal ballot every five years or less. Such rules apply to union presidents, general secretaries and members of a union's executive. Presidents are usually members of a union's executive. That means that they can be subject to two elections: first, to join or remain in the executive and secondly, to become or remain union president.
Unions and the Better Regulation Task Force consider that that requirement is too burdensome. In line with the task force's proposed solution to the problem, the clause would remove the need for two elections. If a president were an elected member of the executive, only the statutory election to the executive would be required. Of course, there would still need to be a statutory election for president in other cases.
The role of most union presidents is largely ceremonial; they act as a figurehead for the union. Presidents generally chair union conferences and meetings of union executives. However, their influence on decision making in unions is not easily distinguishable from that exercised by other executive members. Therefore, there is no obvious reason why it should be in the interest of union members to require what is, in effect, a double election. Such elections can be expensive. It costs 75p to £1 to ballot an individual member, so it would cost £45,000 to £60,000 for a medium-sized union of 60,000 members to elect its president.
In addition, the clause should help unions to deal with any unexpected vacancy for a president—for example, in a case where a president resigns mid-term on health grounds. The clause would enable a new president to be appointed quickly, remove an unnecessary complication from trade union law and save unions unnecessary expense.
I do not have to hand how many trade union presidents there are. However, the TUC directory gives the number of unions and explains the various roles. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will get a copy when he visits the TUC.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 39 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clause 40 ordered to stand part of the Bill.