New Scrutineers of Trade Union Ballots
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Issued on 25 February 2010
A new list of organisations qualified to undertake and scrutinise statutory
ballots and elections under trade union law was announced by the Department for
Business, Innovation and Skills today.
Employment Relations Minister Lord Young said:
“This is very responsible work and it is important that trade unions and
employers have the best organisations available to carry it out.
“Trade unions and employers now have a wider choice of organisations
qualified to provide them with this service.”
The announcement follows a public competition to identify organisations
possessing the necessary qualities to carry out this work launched by the
Department for Business on 24 September 2009. Rita Donaghy CBE, the former head
of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas), chaired the panel
which assessed the applications. The successful organisations are:
· Association of Electoral Administrators;
· DRS Data Services Limited;
· Electoral Reform Services Limited;
· Involvement and Participation Association;
· Opt2Vote Limited; and
· Popularis Limited.
The new legislation naming these six organisations qualified as scrutineers
will come into effect on 6 April 2010.
Notes
1) Unions are required by law to use the services of an independent
scrutineer when carrying out statutory ballots in four areas:
· industrial action ballots (involving more than 50 people);
· ballots to establish and periodically review a union’s Political Fund;
· ballots concerning the amalgamation of unions; and
· elections to certain trade union positions.
2) The Central Arbitration Committee is required by statute to use the
services of qualified independent persons when carrying out trade union
recognition and derecognition ballots.
3) The Government has today laid two sets of regulations naming the
organisations qualified to act as scrutineers. These regulations respectively
apply to trade union recognition and derecognition ballots, and to those trade
union ballots listed above in note 1, as undertaken in Great Britain. The latter
regulations also cover ballots held in Northern Ireland which relate to a trade
union’s political fund, where the trade union concerned is active in Northern
Ireland but has their head or main offices located in Great Britain.
4) The competition was carried out jointly by BIS and the Northern Ireland
Department for Employment and Learning (DELNI). DELNI will make their own
separate, parallel regulations.
Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
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Business, Innovation & Skills. Reproduced under the terms and conditions of the
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Article Published/Sorted/Amended on Scopulus 2010-02-28 15:56:09 in Employee Articles
