Environment Agency UNISON Members transferring to Defra

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Conference
2017 Water, Environment & Transport Conference
Date
22 February 2017
Decision
Carried

This Conference recognises that on 2 February 2017, an announcement was made by Sir James Bevan, (Chief Executive, Environment Agency) that the Environment Agency’s Corporate Services teams will transfer to Defra and that this transfer is expected to be completed by the end of September 2017.

Many of the employees involved in this transfer are currently UNISON members, across a range of Environment Agency branches.

At the time of writing, UNISON has no formal trade union recognition within Defra. We have members who have expressed their wish to retain their UNISON membership and UNISON representation beyond this transfer.

We therefore call upon the Service Group Executive to take the appropriate steps to seek that UNISON members are supported by UNISON into this transfer and that all options available are explored in order to seek that UNISON is formally recognised by Defra for the purposes of bargaining, negotiation and representation.