Page 738
Printed for the Cabinet. December 1949
SECRET
C.P. (49) 241 (Revise)
12th December, 1949
CABINET
.370
31
Copy No...
RECOGNITION OF STAFF ASSOCIATIONS IN THE POST OFFICE
MEMORANDUM BY THE POSTMASTER GENERAL
Statement of Problem
1. I am faced with a difficult and urgent problem concerning official recog- nition of staff associations in the Post Office upon which I should welcome the advice of my colleagues. On the one hand, four new breakaway associations are seeking recognition (see Appendix A), at least one of which (the Engineering Officers' (Telecommunications) Association) has probably already fulfilled the numerical requirement for recognition on the existing basis; on the other hand the two largest recognised associations, the Union of Post Office Workers and the Post Office Engineering Union, have challenged the existing basis of recognition on the ground that it encourages the growth of breakaway bodies, and they urge modification. My difficulty is that if I cede the new associations' claim I run a serious risk of losing the established associations' co-operation in promoting pro- ductivity, to which I attach the greatest importance; if I refuse, I expose myself to a charge of breach of faith. This matter has already been raised by Question in the House (see the extracts from Hansard reproduced in Appendix B); the Adjournment Debate of which notice was given has not however taken place. .
Background and Policy
2. The present policy governing the recognition of staff associations in the Post Office was formulated by my predecessor in 1946, following a claim from the Union of Post Office Workers for sole recognition for all rank-and-file manipula- tive grades. The full text of the Postmaster General's statement, which is repro- duced in Appendix C, was published early in 1947 in the Whitley Bulletin and in several Post Office staff association journals. It had long been the Post Office practice to regard about 40 per cent. membership of the organised staff of a grade or grades as a requirement for the consideration of claims to recognition; but this was the first occasion on which a definite figure was quoted, and since then the so-called "Listowel formula" has obtained general currency. Despite the reservations attached to it, this formula is widely interpreted as automatically entitling an association to official recognition as soon as it can establish that it comprises 40 per cent. of the organised membership of the grade or grades which it represents.
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3. The Union of Post Office Workers and the Post Office Engineering Union criticise the policy and, in particular, its application on the basis of an individual grade. They urge that the proper unit for recognition purposes should be a group of related grades, e.g., the rank-and-file engineering grades as a whole, and the rank-and-file manipulative grades as a whole. Their proposal is of course designed to reduce the chance of any new association securing recognition in a field already covered by an existing recognised association.
Possible Courses of Action
4. There are, I think, three main courses open to me :
(i) I can act on the previous conception of the Listowel formula, recognise hagasodations and when they prove that thejagave the fequisite [37917] 37995
B