Proposed policy propositions 2009

Listed on this page are proposed rule changes and policy propositions submitted by Branches and the union's National Executive Committee (NEC) accepted and rejected by Conference Standing Orders Committee (SOC), along with reasons for rejection.

BECTU Branches can submit amendments to these proposals using the forms enclosed with Conference Document 3 (2008-09) dated 10 February 2009. The closing date for amendments is 1200 on 4 March 2009.

Proposed rule changes accepted by the SOC

AP1 BECTU website - section for member voting

That this annual conference applauds the staff at Head Office for the new features now incorporated in the relaunched BECTU website. In noting this progress, conference requests that the NEC takes the necessary steps to allow for any type of BECTU elections or ballots, at all possible levels, to be accommodated in an electronic voting section of the website. This would in no way replace more traditional means of voting, which must remain an option in all circumstances, be no less secure or confidential, and must follow all the current rules governing BECTU ballots.

This conference recommends this initiative in order to secure greater turnout and therefore higher membership involvement in the important election business of the union.

BBC Cardiff

AP2 Ethical sourcing

That this annual conference directs the NEC to introduce a policy of ethical sourcing within its procurement supply chain, to ensure that BECTU does its utmost to secure fair wages and safe employment conditions for all factory workers who produce BECTU-branded products.

BBC Worldwide TV & Publishing

AP3 State of the economy

That this annual conference notes the role of the UK banking sector in creating the current depression, in which thousands of people are losing their jobs every week. Conference also notes that there have been few legal sanctions against those at the top of the banks, who have often received huge pay offs.

Conference instructs the NEC to campaign for a full public enquiry into the collapse of the banking sector, so that lessons can be learnt; and also to confer with other unions who may wish to raise this issue at TUC Annual Conference.

Bush

AP4 Crewbus service

That this annual conference notes the BECTU Crewbus service does not meet the needs of increasing numbers of freelance members in Divisions other than film and television. Conference instructs the NEC to ensure Crewbus is suitably configured for freelance members from all Divisions, and further promote this service to relevant employers.

West Midlands Freelance

AP5 Protecting members from victimisation

That this annual conference welcomes BECTU’s support for the repeal of anti-union laws. It recognises that the trend to individual employment rights exposes individual workers to victimisation and/or non-renewal of contract if they choose to assert those rights. It calls for the campaign for collective union rights to be given a higher profile in Stage Screen and Radio and on the BECTU website, and it urges branches and divisions to seek to collectivise disputes wherever appropriate so as to minimise the risk of individuals being victimised.

Media Make Up & Hair

AP6 Personal accident insurance

That this annual conference asks the NEC to investigate whether the union can use its buying power to obtain preferential rates for members who wish to purchase personal accident insurance, and if possible, with such rates being subsidised in the same way as the existing public liability insurance offered to members.

Freelance Lighting Technicians

AP7 Private health insurance

That this annual conference asks the NEC to investigate whether the union can use its buying power to obtain preferential rates for members who wish to purchase private health insurance, and if possible, with such rates being subsidised in the same way as the existing public liability insurance offered to members.

Freelance Lighting Technicians

AP8 NEC delegation reports

That this annual conference instructs the NEC to publish on the BECTU website all reports from delegations from BECTU to other organisations or events.

Post Production & Facilities

AP9 BBC TV Centre

That this annual conference believes that the proposed closure of the BBC television centre in London, and the removal of various programme strands and production departments will detrimentally affect most divisions within the union. The proposed closure will not only result in significant job cuts of BBC staff, but will also threaten the employment and employment prospects of freelances, contract staff, casuals and those members employed by companies contracted to the BBC.

This conference therefore instructs the NEC to carry out a high profile campaign to oppose the closure of TV Centre using all appropriate political contacts and actively pursuing publicity opportunities.

Post Production & Facilities

AP10 Pay

SOC note: composited by the SOC.

That this annual conference recognises that a number of our members across all divisions, for example those in catering and cleaning are amongst the lowest paid in the areas covered by BECTU.

Conference therefore instructs the NEC to campaign for a ‘living wage’ and seek to involve all members in the campaign to apply pressure to the companies employing workers on the minimum wage, and to the organisations using those companies as subcontractors.

Where there is a chain of subcontracting, the union will seek to apply pressure on all points of the chain, especially on the media organisation at the top that bears the ultimate responsibility.

This campaign should be based on the action being taken by fellow trade unions and the Mayor of London to establish a ‘living wage’ of £7.45 per hour within London.

SOC note: Original propositions as follows:

AP10(A) Pay

That this annual conference recognises that a number of our members across divisions, for example, those in catering and cleaning, are amongst the lowest paid in the industries covered by BECTU.

Conference calls upon the NEC to campaign for a minimum living wage across all parts of the industries where BECTU members are employed.

This campaign will be based on the action being taken by fellow trade unions and the Mayor of London to establish a living wage of £7.45 per hour within London.

Johnsons Controls

AP10(B) Living wages

That this annual conference instructs BECTU to support the call for ‘living wages’ in the entertainment industry, and seek to involve all members in the campaign to apply pressure to both the companies employing workers on the minimum wage and the organisations using those companies as subcontractors.

Where there is a chain of sub-contracting, the union will seek to apply pressure on all points of the chain, especially on the media organisation at the top that bears the ultimate responsibility.

BBC Radio & Music Production

AP11 Cross-party select committee

That this annual conference calls on the General Secretary:

  • To take all necessary action, in order to convene the existing ‘Business & Enterprise Committee’, a cross-party select committee of the House of Commons, which scrutinises the role of the BERR and holds it to account.
  • To provide the select committee, such evidence showing:
    1. The complete failure of Employment Agency Standards (EAST) to deal effectively with the problem of up-front fees.
    2. The need for agency licensing.
    3. The need for the EAS to be made a statutory body that can impose fines.
    4. The need for the NMW has to be determined, after agency deductions.
    5. How the EAS have failed to enforce existing regulations.

Film Artistes Association

AP12 Health & safety

That this annual conference asks that all productions provide a heart defibrillator for life saving medical emergencies to every production unit.

Film Artistes Association

AP13 Death notification

That this annual conference requests that each organiser and branch chair are informed of the death of a member immediately the union is advised.

Film Artistes Association

AP14 Strike fund

That this annual conference instructs BECTU to investigate seriously the setting up of a strike fund and the methods for a) collection of fund subscriptions, b) the administration of the fund, and c) the criteria for distribution of the fund in the event of a strike.

BBC Radio & Music Production

AP15 Fight back against business opposition to trade unions

That this annual conference resolves to instruct BECTU to:

  1. Compile, publish and regularly update a list of companies that refuse to recognise trade unions and/or victimise staff who join/try to join/fight for recognition of trade unions;
  2. Encourage BECTU members to boycott such companies, and to write to them telling them why.

If necessary the list could be administered in collaboration with other trade unions.

BBC Radio & Music Production

AP16 Break the Link with Labour

That this annual conference notes the Labour government's redoubled commitment to policies (including supporting big business, attacking civil liberties, privatising public services and pursuing criminal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) that are inimical to the interests of ordinary people in general and BECTU members in particular - epitomised by the government's 'rob the poor to pay the rich' response to the deepening economic crisis of world capitalism.

That this annual conference recognises the need to cut ties that hamper us in our fight for our interests, and therefore resolves to withdraw all BECTU funding from the Labour party and cease this union's political affiliation with immediate effect.

BBC Radio & Music Production

SOC note: The SOC has rejected the first paragraph as excessive argument.

AP17 Media workers and the war

That this annual conference recognises:

  1. That the US and British governments' wars against, and occupations of, Iraq and Afghanistan constitute illegal, unprovoked aggressions against sovereign states;
  2. That those who help prepare such wars by directing the propaganda efforts are as culpable as those who draw up the battle plans or order the manufacture of munitions;
  3. that British media coverage at the onset of these wars devoted a tiny proportion of air time to anti-war sentiments and relied heavily on government and military sources for information, to such an extent that the BBC's own study carried out soon after the invasion of Iraq concluded that embedded reporters "sanitised" the war and were "a disservice to democracy";
  4. That the vast majority of the ongoing British media coverage of the occupations, including that of the BBC, continues to use the terminology of the invading armies and to reproduce as fact not requiring corroboration press releases issued by military and government spokespersons;
  5. That British polling agency ORB recently confirmed that the Iraqi war dead now number over 1 million, while 2 million have been forced into exile and another 2 million are internally displaced refugees.

That this annual conference believes:

  1. That although individually powerless, British working people collectively have the power to stop the war, since the government and corporations cannot fight it without us;
  2. That people are prepared for war and occupation by propaganda that seeks to dehumanise the Iraqi and Afghan peoples and to sanitise, normalise and justify the crimes of the British and US governments;
  3. That currently ordinary journalists and media workers have very little option but to fall in line with the diktat of senior editors and media owners if they want to keep their jobs;
  4. That unions representing media workers have a particular responsibility to do everything in their power to try to help stop the war, as well as to protect their members from any hint of involvement in war crimes, by giving the maximum possible collective support to ordinary journalists and media workers in order that they might challenge the currently-established 'norms' of war reporting.

That this annual conference resolves:

  • that BECTU members should be free to obey their conscience and refuse to engage in any propaganda work that helps the criminal war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan, in particular by publishing government and army press releases without independent corroboration or using the invaders' terminology to describe resistance forces and civilian victims;
  • that all members refusing to engage in such work shall have the full backing of the union.

BBC Radio & Music Production

SOC note: The SOC has rejected all but the final paragraphs as excessive argument.

AP18 Reclaim our rights

That this annual conference notes:

  1. that working people in 2009 have fewer rights than they did 100 years ago;
  2. that from the very foundation of the workers' movement, the only way working people have won their rights is by defying the unjust laws that are ranged against them;
  3. that the world is in the grip of a global economic crisis;
  4. that the increasing inability of even the rich states to pay for decent social provision at home is inevitably leading to further attacks on the wages, conditions and social wage of workers in Britain;
  5. that the anti-union legislation brought in by the Conservatives and kept by Labour was drawn up to intimidate and criminalize any really organised fight back against these attacks by the workers of Britain;
  6. that much of the successful action taken by millions of French workers against attacks on their pay and conditions a year ago was officially 'illegal' (as were the walkouts by British Airways baggage handlers and the refusal of Daily Star workers to print a particularly racist spread), but that the strength of their unity made this fact irrelevant.

That this annual conference believes:

  1. 1. that given the above conditions, it is imperative for all trade unions to prepare themselves and their members for a serious fight against further encroachment on pay, conditions, pensions etc, and to defend services such as health, education, the postal service and public broadcasting;
  2. 2. that unjust anti-worker legislation must be overturned, and that the only way to overturn the present anti-union legislation is to defy it en masse.

SOC note: The SOC has rejected the first six paragraphs as excessive argument, but accepted the remainder as separate propositions.

BBC Radio & Music Production

AP19 Anti-union laws

That this annual conference resolves:

  1. 1. to use all means at the union's disposal to fight against further attacks on pay, pensions etc, even if to be effective means to defy the anti-union laws;
  2. 2. to coordinate with other unions to build a mass campaign to defy the anti-union laws in order to protect the pay and conditions of all workers in Britain.

BBC Radio & Music Production

SOC note: The SOC has rejected as excessive argument all of this proposition except the last four paragraphs, which have been split into two separate propositions.

AP20 Women writers and directors

That this annual conference calls for the recognition that less than 6% of UK feature Directors are women and less than 12% are screenwriters.(source: skillset report). Conference calls on the upon the NEC to develop proposals in conjunction with the equalities committee on targeted training and development programmes for women directors and screenwriters and to lobby the government for new funds to be allocated to the UK film council for these initiatives providing new funding for a feature industry, which truly reflects a diversity of voices.

Writers Directors and Producers

AP21 Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions

BECTU Conference condemns the three-week bombing of Gaza by the Israeli Forces, which began on 27th December 2008 and resulted in the deaths of over 1,300 Palestinians, 60 Israelis, including 400 children together with at least 5,500 wounded. Conference believes that Israel's collective punishment of the people of Gaza is in clear breach of international humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention and that these actions, should be investigated by the International Court of Justice as possible War Crimes.

BECTU supports the demonstrations, which have taken place internationally and inside Israel by people who have campaigned against the bombardment.

BECTU expresses its support for an independent Palestinian state as affirmed in the 2006 TUC resolution, which expresses support for: the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, in line with UN resolutions; the right of return for Palestinian refugees in accordance with Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UN General Assembly resolutions 3236 (1974) and 52/62 (1997) and the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israeli troops from all the territories occupied in 1967 as expressed in UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338.

BECTU calls on the British Government to exert the maximum pressure diplomatically to end the occupation.

BECTU condemns the press censorship and conference endorses BECTU'S decision to protest against the refusal of the BBC to screen the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for Gaza. Conference condemns the banning of international journalists entry into Gaza by the Israeli state and the killing of 4 Palestinian journalists.

This conference calls on the NEC to be involved in the building of a long-term strategy as a priority to lobby both the British government and TUC to provide practical funds and support to the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGTUG) media workers, journalists and filmmakers to establish and build an independent and democratic media for a New Palestinian state.

AP22 Gaza

Conference calls on the NEC to organise a panel with the NUJ and the International Federation of journalists to investigate the targeting of media by Israeli forces in the Gaza strip and to consider further organisation of joint public activity, meetings and campaigns with the NUJ

Writers Directors and Producers

AP23 Palestine solidarity campaign

Conference reaffirms BECTU's affiliation to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and resolves to actively support PSC by encouraging branch affiliation and by raising the profile of the campaign via the union journal, press releases. Conference requests the NEC to give consideration to a donation to the PSC campaign to assist its work and to actively participate in its Trade Union Advisory Committee alongside the other PSC affiliates.

Writers Directors and Producers

SOC note: The SOC decided that each paragraph was a separate proposition and decided to reject the first 5 as excessive argument. But accepted the last 3.

Writers Directors and Producers

AP24 European Working Time Directive Opt Out

That this annual conference condemns the British Government on it's decision to maintain the opt-out of the Working Time Directive. Further, this Conference welcomes the European Parliament's decision to end Britain's opt-out from the Working Time Directive and notes that Labour MEPs who voted with the majority did so in opposition to Gordon Brown and the Cabinet.

This Conference therefore instructs the incoming NEC to:

  1. Urge BECTU's Parliamentary Group to lobby the British Government to accept the vote in the European Parliament and to withdraw the U.K's opt-out in the Council of Ministers and thereby kick start an end to Britain's culture of low pay, long hours and minimal protection of workers' rights.
  2. Launch or support online petitions across the unions against the opt out in efforts to put pressure onto the decision makers.
  3. Strongly publicise the campaign throughout its membership using all its publicity tools to engage members in activity.

That this conference condemns the British Government on its decision to maintain the opt-out of the Working Time Directive and notes the European Parliaments decision to end Britain’s veto and urges the NEC to carry on the campaign to end the Working Time Directive opt-out.

Writers Directors and Producers

SOC note: The SOC asked the branch to rewrite this proposition, as they believed much of it was existing policy. The branch has accepted the new wording.

AP25 Bolivia

That this annual conference

  • celebrates the success of the Bolivian people in resisting privatisation of gas and water. supports the first indigenous president of the country, Evo Morales in his policies of supporting trade unions, human rights and land reform.
  • condemns the right wing opposition behind the massacre in Pando in October 2008.
  • congratulations President Morales on winning a recall referendum with an increased majority.
  • affiliates to the Bolivian Solidarity Campaign.

Central London OB Engineers

Propositions rejected by the SOC

RP1 Low pay/work experience

That this annual conference deplores the illegally long hours, evasion of statutory holiday pay, and the abuse of free labour, under the guise of 'work experience' prevalent in the film and television industry. The practice of engaging new entrants in unpaid work placements is illegal under the National Minimum Wage laws, yet it is widespread across our industry.

This conference calls on the NEC to launch a campaign in conjunction with other associated parties, in order to raise awareness of these unfair and illegal working practices, and no longer to tolerate those employers who continue to operate in this way. Furthermore, conference calls upon the NEC to support and publicly endorse the establishment of apprenticeship programmes, which industry workers consistently call for.

Writers Directors and Producers

SOC note: Reason for rejection: existing policy

Last updated 13 February 2009