Motion to the branch committee on 3 February 2019 which created the Finance and General Purposes committee (F&GP).
Background
The branch is becoming more diverse and dispersed in terms of member locations and service areas.
In 2014 just under half of branch members were within the general environment area —that is Refuse, Street Cleansing, Civic Sites, Public Conveniences, Parks, Cemeteries—and around 10% in Edinburgh Building Services (Craft).
With changes in the council—redundancies etc.—around
- 25% of members are in environment
- 15% in EBS.
- 15 to 20% are in FM
- around 10% in Schools
- up to 10% in Safer, Stronger Communities
with the rest scattered across departments, service areas and the city. The volume of casework has more than doubled over this period and organisational reviews, JCCs and H&S committee work has also increased.
Whilst the number of reps has also increased it is becoming more difficult to organise the branch towards the activities that are required to fully address the needs of our members and to tackle the injustices foisted upon us.
Proposal
This motion proposes the establishment of a branch Finance and General Purposes (F&GP) committee that will be tasked with the development and overseeing of key branch activities. These activities should include:
- case logging and distribution
- collective representation, such as reviews, JCCs, collective grievances
- branch finance and expenditure
- branch development, including recruitment campaigns, organising, constitution, campaigns.
- branch standards and discipline, including adherence to Unite Rule Book.
- communications, including website, twitter, mass mailings, newsletters.
- equalities and welfare
- learning, including rep training
- Research, including analysis of council and other bodies’ policies and decisions
It is not possible for one or two individuals to properly cover all of these areas, therefore a committee consisting of 7-9 reps should be established to carry out, monitor, distribute and report on these activities.
Whilst the F&GP should take responsibility for overseeing and distributing case and other work individual reps will still conduct case and other work.
Reports from the F&GP should be made to and approved by the full branch committee of all reps and members attending the full branch committee.
Decisions made and actions taken by the F&GP may be challenged by any member through the full branch committee using the procedures set out in the Unite Rule Book and by the Executive Council.
A vote should be taken by a simple show of hands on this proposal followed by an election to the committee should the motion be carried.