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66. Mr. Boyd-Carpenter asked the Postmaster General, when he abrogated the rule of his department entitling associations of workers numbering 40 per cent. of the organised workers in a grade to recognition; and in what form and to whom this abrogation was communicated.
Mr. Wilfred Paling:
I have not abrogated any rule. As I recently informed the hon. and gallant member, I am reviewing the whole situation.
Mr. Boyd-Carpenter: May I ask the right hon. Gentleman if it is not a fact that this rule has existed for some time in his Department, and that notwithstand- ing that, he has refused to apply it, though he accepts the figures in the case of the Engineering Officers Telecommunications Associations? Can the right hon. Gentleman therefore distinguish between abrogating a rule and not applying it when it is politically inconvenient.
Mr. Paling It is true that the rule has been in operation a long time and also that circumstances have cropped up which make it possible to review it.
Mr. Quintin Hogg: Is not it a fact that the only circumstance which cropped up was the desire of the right hon. Gentleman to suppress a union not of his own liking?
Mr. Henry Strauss: Whatever may be the inconvenience of dealing with several unions, will it not cause far more inconvenience if the right hon. Gentle- man refuses recognition to a trade union which represents 40 per cent. of the works concerned?
·Mr. Paling: That remains to be seen.
Mr. W. J. Brown: May I ask in what respect conditions have changed as "between the date when this scheme of recognition of 40 per cent. was adopted by agreement within the Post Office and the conditions to-day? In what respect has there been any change whatever?
Mr. Paling: A lot of conditions have changed in the last twenty years.
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Mr. Boyd-Carpenter: I beg to give notice, in view of the fact that the non- application of this long-standing rule in one particular case really requires further investigation, that I shall endeavour to raise the matter on the Adjournment.
APPENDIX C
66 THE LISTOWEL FORMULA
(Extract from Post Office letter to the Union of Post Office Workers
dated 30th December, 1946)
"As the Union will have realised, consideration of its claim for sole recognition has involved a general review of the arrangements for granting recognition to staff associations, and the Postmaster General has considered the matter very carefully in the light of present-day developments. He sees no reason at present for departing from the policy hitherto pursued of considering a request for recognition from an association if it can show that it has in member- ship at least 40 per cent. of the organised staff of the grade or grades concerned. For the future, however, he has decided that the Department should also adopt as a guiding rule that where an association warrants recognition this should be granted for an initial period of three years; at the end of that period, or at any time subsequently, the question of withdrawing recognition will arise if the membership falls below 33 per cent. of the organised staff of the grade. The question of restoring recognition once withdrawn will not be considered until the lapse of three years from the date of withdrawal. The foregoing is, of course, always subject to the prevailing circumstances on any given occasion being similar to those obtaining to-day."
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NOTE⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Page 743 of 1097
NOTE
:
The letter containing the above paragraph was reproduced in full in the Post, the journal of the Union of Post Office Workers, of 4th January, 1947, and in the
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Whitley Bulla&e A4February 1947. A similar passage was cluded in letter sent to other associations, which were reproduced in the following association journals:
The Counter Clerk (Association of Counter Clerks and Telegraphists) of January 1947;
The Postal Telegraph (Guild of Postal Sorters) of January 1947; and The Telephonist (National Guild of Telephonists) of February 1947.
APPENDIX D
(Extract from "Notes on Government Organisation No. 7, Staff Relations in the Civil Service")
To secure recognition an association must show that it is representative of the category of staff concerned. In the Civil Service recognition depends solely on numerical strength. The Postmaster General has recently announced that the Post Office will consider a request for recognition if the association making the request can show that it has in membership at least 40 per cent. of the organised staff of the grade or grades concerned; that where an association warrants recognition by the Post Office this will be granted for an initial period of three years; that at the end of that period or at any time subsequently the question of withdrawing recognition will arise if the membership falls below 333 per cent. of the organised staff of the grade; and that the question of restoring recognition once withdrawn will not be considered until the lapse of three years from the date of withdrawal. The Treasury has never announced any precise percentages which would establish a claim to national recognition or raise the question of with- drawing national recognition, and considers each claim on its merits. Where, however, there are conflicting claims, actual or potential, steps are taken to ascertain fully-paid-up membership figures before recognition is granted: if necessary, an association may be asked to allow its membership records to be inspected.
APPENDIX E
DRAFT STATEMENT OF REVISED POLICY
1. I have now. carefully reviewed the basis on which recognition by the Post Office should be given to new staff associations.
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2. My predecessor informed the Union of Post Office Workers in December 1946 that he saw no reason at that time for departing from the policy hitherto pursued of considering a request for recognition from an association if it could show that it had in membership at least 40 per cent. of the organised staff of the grade or grades concerned. This statement seems to have been taken in certain quarters to mean that if an association could show a membership of 40 per cent. of the organised staff of any particular grade or grades, it would automatically qualify for recognition in respect of that grade or grades. That is not the case, nor was it the intention of my predecessor when he made his statement conditional upon the prevailing circumstances on any given occasion being similar to those then obtaining.
3. In its letter of 27th August, 1949, to the Engineering Officers (Tele- communications) Association, the Post Office stated that further examination would be made of their membership figures, for consideration of recognition, on the assumption that "in the meantime there is no change in regard to the principle on which the grade is used as a basis for considering claims by staff associations to official recognition."
4. I have carefully considered whether I should make any change in the basis of recognition.44.
of
It seems to me to be undeniable that thers has been a change in the circumstances affecting recognition--a possibility for mich, as1T
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explagred, 4my? predecessor expressly provided in hsagatement for December 1946. In view of the paramount need in the present critical national situation to ensure harmonious working relationships and measures of co-operation between the Post Office and its staff as a whole, I have reached the conclusion that it is necessary to restate the policy to be followed in dealing with requests for recognition of new associations in the Post Office,
5. Questions of recognition are not, in my judgment, suitable for settlement by reference to any automatic formula. Each case must be considered individually and in any arrangements which may be made it will be a principal objective to ensure that the interests of the Post Office staff are safeguarded. I propose, therefore, to restate my policy in general terms as follows.
6. In deciding any particular case it is necessary to take account of such factors as the degree to which the new association is representative of the staff concerned, how far the grade or grades. in respect of which recognition is claimed can properly be regarded as a separate entity from the point of view of staff organisation and discussions, and generally the position of the grade or grades in question in relation to other grades in the same organisation. It may also be necessary to take into account wider questions, such as the effect of a change in representation on the general working relationships in the Post Office.
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7. I am considering the application for recognition by E.O. (T.) A. in the light of the factors which I have now set out.
APPENDIX F
EXTRACT FROM ESTACODE-SECTION N-RELATIONS WITH STAFF (a) Staff Associations
3. Recognised and Unrecognised Associations.—An association may be recognised either by a department for departmental purposes or by the Treasury for national purposes. In either case, the recognised association should have enough members in the grades or classes it claims to represent to enable it to enter into binding agreements on their behalf. National recognition depends on the size of the association's membership in the grades or classes concerned in the Civil Service generally, and departmental recognition on the size of its member- ship in the grades or classes concerned within a department. Treasury has not defined with precision the percentages which establish a claim to national recognition or involve its withdrawal; but where there are conflicting claims steps are normally taken to ascertain fully paid-up membership figures before recognition is granted or withdrawn, and, if necessary, an association may be asked to allow its membership records to be inspected.
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The
National and departmental recognition need not coincide, and there is no question of requiring Treasury approval for the departmental recognition of an association. If an association other than the nationally-recognised association has a larger membership in a given grade in a particular department, it has the better claim so far as that grade in that department is concerned. But the National Staff Side has pointed out that it would be embarrassing to nationally- recognised associations if the departmental application of a national agreement were discussed only with a departmentally-recognised association which was in competition with the association which was party to the agreement, and not with the latter association. Accordingly it has been agreed that any department in which a question arises on the interpretation of a national agreement should in general consult departmental representatives of the nationally-recognised associa- tion as well as any other association which is departmentally recognised,
Recognition gives an association certain rights the right to be brought into consultation by the employing authority on proposals affecting the category of staff which the recognition is granted; the right to be party to any formal agree- ments affecting their conditions of service; and the right to go to arbitration under the terms of the Civil Service Arbitration Agreement.
(See Arbitration N cl.) It also involves the association in responsibilities the extent which, in the
to 19 exercises of those rights, it makes itself a party to agreements and understandings
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Departmenge Hake alisetion to deal as they think fit wagecorrespondente from unrecognised associations, as they would with correspondence from any other quarter. Letters from unrecognised associations on individual cases not involving matters of general principle can usually be dealt with at their face value, but departments have discretion to do nothing beyond acknowledging them. Great caution should, however, be exercised in dealing with letters from unrecognised associations which involve matters of general principle.
principle. Departments should bear in mind that they and the recognised associations share the responsibility for the terms of agreements that have been concluded through Whitley machinery or otherwise. Departments should be careful not to enter into argument, explana- tion or justification with an unrecognised association, especially where it is in obvious rivalry with a recognised one, on any matter which is the subject of an agreement or negotiations with a recognised association or Staff Side, since to do so would appear to give a standing to the unrecognised body, to which, on that particular matter, it had no claim. Above all, departments should refrain from invoking as an answer to complaints by unrecognised associations the existence of an agreement with a recognised association or Staff Side, and implying that that association or Staff Side is responsible for any defects in the agreement; an agreement is the equal responsibility of both parties to it.
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