NEC's report to the 2000 Annual Conference and policy propositions
The National Executive Committee
1 The National Executive Committee has, since conference 1999, met on the following dates: in 1999, on the 4 July, 15 August, 26 September, 7 November (inquorate), 12 December; and in 2000 on the 23 January, 5 March, 16 April, 5 May.
2 The members of the National Executive Committee elected with effect from the 16 May 1998 were Jack Amos, Sean Barker, Helene Bevan, Robert Cann, Robert Caswell, Peter Cox, Mark David-Gray, Tudor Gates, Tony Lennon, Lynn Lloyd, Andy Love, Turlough MacDaid, Peter Martin, Jack McNairn, Tony Scott, Margaret Watts and Cris Woodcock.
3 A vacancy remained through insufficient nominations to represent the Independent Broadcasting division. James McGirr was elected through a by-election in the division on the 3 July 1998.
4 In August and September 1999 a second by-election was conducted amongst members in the Independent Broadcasting division to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of James McGirr. Anne Buckland was elected to the National Executive Committee on the 17 September 1999 to serve for the remainder of the 1998-2000 term of office. Both Independent Broadcasting NEC by-elections were uncontested and there was minimal cost.
5 Bob Caswell, the NEC member for Laboratories, died suddenly and unexpectedly on Sunday 14 November 1999. Bob was a dedicated and long-serving member of the Laboratories division and had made a valuable contribution to the work of the NEC.
6 Mark David-Gray resigned his position on the NEC in November 1999 in view of his appointment as a National Official of the union.
7 The NEC consulted with the Laboratories and BBC divisions and decided not to fill the resulting vacancies in order to avoid confusion with the imminent full elections of the incoming NEC, which would have overlapped. This position was accepted by both the Laboratories division and the BBC division.
8 The result of the NEC elections for the 2000-2002 term of office will be declared just before the close of this conference.
9 The General Officers elected on the 16 May 1998 under rule 33(b) by the NEC from among its own number were Tony Lennon (President), Tudor Gates (Vice-President), Turlough MacDaid (Treasurer).
Conference
10 The minutes of the rules revision conference of BECTU held on the 12 June 1999 and of the annual conference held on the 12-13 June 1999 were circulated to branches in Branch Circular 552 dated 24 June 1999.
11 The NEC at its meeting on the 15 August 1999 decided to hold the union's 2000 annual conference in Manchester.
12 The NEC is currently considering cost-effective venues for the union's conference in 2001.
Proposition 1/00 (AP1) Conference
That this annual conference instructs the NEC to investigate the potential for innovative conference formats, including for instance interactive workshop sessions, multimedia presentations and keynote speakers, aimed at stimulating more imaginative participation by attendees. The NEC should either report its conclusions to conference in 2001, or publish them to branches in advance and implement them at that conference.
North Wales Freelance
Election of President - complaint
13 The NEC is reporting to the union's annual conference that the Vice-President of BECTU, Mr Tudor Gates, has made a formal complaint to the Certification Officer about the manner in which BECTU elects its President.
14 This matter was first brought to the attention of the NEC at its meeting on the 4 July 1999. At that meeting the General Secretary reported to the NEC that when its Finance & General Purposes Committee (F&GPC) had met on the 19 June the Vice-President had sought to raise at that meeting the challenge that Equity had faced in respect of the position of its President and the ruling on it of the Certification Officer dated 8 April 1999. This matter had not been admitted to the agenda of the F&GPC and the Vice-President had, immediately following the meeting of the F&GPC, asked the General Secretary to obtain a copy of the Certification Officer's ruling in the Equity case so that it could be discussed between the President, the Vice-President and the General Secretary. The General Secretary had taken the appropriate steps to obtain a copy of this ruling, but it had come to his attention that the Vice-President had submitted to the journal editor the text of a letter to be published in Stage Screen & Radio without the NEC having any opportunity to debate the matter. In view of this the General Secretary had obtained some preliminary advice from the union's solicitors, Thompsons, regarding the procedure used by BECTU to elect its President.
15 The preliminary legal advice had indicated that BECTU was not currently in breach of the legislation but could be in some difficulty regarding the procedure used for the election of the President if a formal complaint to the Certification Officer was made.
16 Against that background the NEC, at its meeting on the 4 July 1999, decided that BECTU should continue to seek to govern its own affairs but that the position should be reconsidered if and when a legal challenge was made.
17 The matter was again considered by the NEC at its meeting on the 15 August 1999 when the Vice-President again placed it on the agenda; in a letter to the NEC he called upon them to give an undertaking to amend the rules so as to bring them in line with the requirements of the relevant legislation. At that meeting the General Secretary pointed out that rule 33(l) of BECTU's rule book made it clear that the NEC had no power to alter the rules of the union. The NEC decided that
in the light of the recent Equity decision and the legal advice it had received, the National Executive Committee agrees to draft an amendment to rules which will bring the way the President is elected in line with trade union law. It further agrees to place that amendment before the members at the first possible opportunity, which shall be no later than the weekend of annual conference in May 2000, if an aggrieved member chooses to make a complaint to the Certification Officer or the High Court and that complaint is upheld.
18 The NEC again considered this matter at its meeting on the 12 December 1999. At that meeting the General Secretary reported that he had received a letter from the Certification Officer informing him that Mr Gates had, under Section 55 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (as amended), lodged a complaint that BECTU had failed to ensure that the President had been elected to that position in an election satisfying the requirements of section 46(l) of the 1992 Act.
19 At the same meeting the NEC considered more detailed advice that it had received from its solicitors, Thompsons. In that advice Thompsons made it clear that when the President, the Vice-President and the Treasurer had been elected following the first rules revision conference on the 26-28 October 1991, they had been elected in a manner that complied with the requirements of rule and the requirements of law.
20 Thompsons also advised the NEC that the purpose of consolidation acts was to bring together existing pieces of legislation and not to change legislation. Thompsons advised the NEC that there were good grounds for resisting the complaint that had been lodged by the Vice-President, and that the union could and should resist this complaint. Accordingly, the NEC decided at that meeting that the union should resist the challenge lodged to the election of its President and instructed Thompsons to act on its behalf.
21 Following the NEC's decision on the 12 December 1999, the General Secretary received further advice from Thompsons indicating that if complaints were to be made regarding the election of members of the NEC, such complaints had to be lodged within 12 months of the election taking place, and that it was the opinion of Thompsons that the complaint lodged by the Vice-President was out of time. Thompsons' legal advice to the union and BECTU's formal submission to the Certification Officer are attached as Appendix A. On the 9 March 2000 there was a formal hearing at which the Certification Officer ruled that the complaint was out of time and could not be considered. A supplementary report will be given on this matter.
Election of NEC - complaint
22 The NEC at its meeting on the 23 January 2000 was informed by the Vice-President that he was considering lodging a further complaint to the Certification Officer in respect of elections to the NEC. Mr Gates pointed out that rule 33(d) states that "no paid official or employee of the union shall be eligible for election to the NEC." Mr Gates suggested that those BBC employees who are granted full time off by the BBC to carry out their trade union duties should be regarded as paid officials under rule 33(d) and should not be eligible for election to the NEC.
23 The NEC at its meeting on the 23 January 2000 considered the Vice-President's written interpretation of the rule, but agreed only to note the correspondence. Mr Gates indicated that he would not accept the arguments made against his complaint. A supplementary report will be given on this matter.
Assistant General Secretaries
24 The 1999 rules revision conference of BECTU decided that the two Assistant General Secretary positions should be elected positions, and the NEC at its meeting on the 4 July 1999 considered the practical implications of this. The NEC decided
That details of the election arrangements would be posted on BECTU's website, if at all possible, on Monday 5 July; the branch circular would be issued by the General Secretary no later than 12 July; the appointment of the independent scrutineer would take place on the 5 July; the journal which was being published on the 12 July would carry the draft article agreed at today's meeting; the closing date for the receipt of nominations by head office and all candidates' election addresses by the scrutineer would be noon on 10 September 1999; if balloting is required, on the 13 September 1999 liaison will begin with the scrutineer over the validity of nominations, art work for ballot papers and election addresses; the printing of ballot papers and election addresses would take place on the 16 September 1999; that BECTU will provide to the scrutineer on the 16 September 1999 a members' mailing address disk; that balloting will open on the 20 September 1999 and will close at 12 noon on the 19 November 1999; that if both elections are uncontested the Assistant General Secretaries will take office on the date the independent scrutineer reports that fact; that if at least one of those elections is contested both Assistant General Secretaries will take office together, on the date the result of both elections is reported by the independent scrutineer; in the case of an election a branch circular will be issued on the 22 November with the results.
Details of these arrangements were circulated to branches in Branch Circular 553.
25 On the 10 September 1999 the independent scrutineer, Electoral Reform Ballot Services, reported that the nominations of candidates in the two elections of Assistant General Secretary closed at 12 noon that day, and that in each election only one candidate was nominated. In the election of Assistant General Secretary for Laboratories, London Production and Regional Production divisions, Marilyn Goodman was elected unopposed. In the election of Assistant General Secretary for Arts & Entertainment, BBC and IB divisions Gerry Morrissey was elected unopposed. The report of the independent scrutineer was reproduced verbatim in Branch Circular 558. Because the elections were uncontested there was minimal cost.
Trustees
26 There was a vacancy for a second Trustee following the election at the 1999 annual conference of Dennis Claridge as the sole nominee. The NEC at its meeting on the 26 September 1999 exercised its powers under rule 3(c) and appointed Deryck Lewis as a Trustee until the next election of Trustees at the union's 2000 conference.
Finance
27 The union continues to operate under the provisions of a facilities agreement between BECTU and Unity Trust Bank. The facilities BECTU currently has with the Bank are an overdraft facility of £150,000 and a loan facility of £312,000.
28 The union continued to operate in difficult financial circumstances throughout 1999. At the end of 1999 BECTU had a deficit of £65,871. The NEC at its meeting on the 12 December 1999 endorsed the income and expenditure forecast for 2000, which is attached to this agenda as Appendix B.
29 The NEC was due to examine the first quarter's income figures for 2000 at its meeting on the 16 April 2000. A supplementary report will be given.
BECTU's head office
30 The General Secretary reported to the NEC at its meeting on the 4 July 1999 that he had received an enquiry from the estate agents, Allsop, as to whether or not BECTU was willing to sell its head office at 111 Wardour Street. The NEC decided that the only circumstances in which BECTU would be interested in selling would be if an outstanding offer was made for it that generated enough money to relocate to other freehold offices in central London of at least the same standard, to pay all of the relocation costs, and to allow BECTU to put money in the bank.
31 The General Secretary reported to the NEC at its meeting on the 15 August 1999 that Allsop had informed him that a prospective purchaser had made a written offer in the sum of £3.1 million. The NEC decided not to respond to this offer as it had not at the time identified suitable alternative accommodation, nor costed its purchase. The General Secretary reported to the NEC on the 26 September 1999 that the prospective purchaser had increased the offer to £3.65 million, and that they had offered to exchange contracts immediately but allow BECTU twelve months to find alternative accommodation. The NEC decided to appoint Allsop formally as BECTU's property agents for a period of six months, with instructions that they seek to find a satisfactory alternative head office for BECTU within central London, and reaffirmed that it would not respond to offers to purchase 111 Wardour Street until it had identified suitable alternative accommodation.
32 Possible alternative premises were identified at 29 Ely Place, EC1 and the General Officers reported on an inspection visit they had made at the meeting of the F&GPC held on the 8 January 2000. They had considered that the property would be a suitable head office for BECTU. The General Secretary reported to the meeting of the NEC held on the 23 January 2000 that the property had been offered to BECTU for £3.25 million, but, unlike 111 Wardour Street, it would attract VAT adding a further 171/2% to the asking price. Allsop had been asked to enquire whether the prospective purchaser of 111 Wardour Street was prepared to raise their offer from £3.65 million to £3.95 million. This would have achieved the financial objectives set by the NEC on the 4 July 1999. Unfortunately the prospective purchaser was not willing to increase their offer and had, in fact, withdrawn their interest.
33 At the time of writing the position is that Allsop will continue to seek suitable alternative head office accommodation for BECTU and an acceptable purchase price for 111 Wardour Street. If this is not achieved within a six month period the NEC will reconsider the matter. A supplementary report may be given.