- Conference
- 2005 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 19 September 2004
- Decision
- Carried
At the National Delegate Conference in 1997 Conference voted overwhelmingly for paid Black officers in every region – to be available amongst other things, to advise on the quality of representation afforded to Black Members. The union saw fit never to implement this motion despite the motion being union policy.
Prior to and since this motion there have been countless numbers of motions and debates regarding the poor and questionable quality of representation afforded to Black members right across the employment protection field.
Conference is appalled that despite numerous debates and policy documents there are still major disparities in the equality of representation afforded to Black workers at the internal grievance and disciplinary stages of employment policies. This is particularly concerning given the introduction of the new conflict resolution procedures which came into force on 1 October 2004 requiring all workers to exhaust internal employer procedures before seeking to have their complaints addressed in Employment Tribunals.
Given these concerns conference instructs the NBMC to work with the NEC to:
1.Undertake and auditing of Branch preparedness of Branches for the new employment legislation;
2.To set up regional auditin systems to monitor the quality of and complaints about the representation services afforded to Black Members.
3.To formulate a report with recommendations aimed at addressing concerns in this area.
4.To establish a timeline for completion of this work in time to provide a first report to the next Black members conference.