NEC Report to BECTU 2003 Conference paragraphs 97-147
Health and safety
97 The most important health and safety work for members is undertaken by tackling practical issues at local level. However, the union also undertakes health and safety work divisionally and nationally.
98 Each division of the union is encouraging all safety representatives to undertake relevant training - and as a minimum, the TUC Stage 1 courses. Assistance and advice on obtaining paid time-off is available.
99 At national level, health and safety policy issues covered during the year have included: the HSC's pilot scheme of Workers Safety Advisors; the need for new regulations on safety representatives (including roving safety reps and right for the self-employed to have access to safety reps); studio smoke effects; nitrate film stock regulations; and First Aid.
100 Other national activity includes the BECTU National Health and Safety Committee, the distribution of BECTU Health and Safety Bulletins, participation in the annual Hazards conference, representation on the HSE Broadcasting Joint Advisory Committee and its working groups) and contributions to the new HSE publication on health and safety in audiovisual production. A questionnaire to all safety reps was distributed by BECTU safety activist Pat Styles.
101 Activity on health and safety is constrained by limits on resources but remains an essential aspect of union activity.
Proposition 22/03 (AP8) Health and safety officer
That this annual conference urges BECTU to create a full time Health and Safety Officer's post within the union, and to give a commitment that this post will be in place prior to next annual conference.
SOC note: SOC has rejected as excessive argument the following text after "annual conference." (the branch is urged to consider compositing with or amending AP9 following):
"BECTU needs a full time Health and Safety Officer for three key reasons:
- to facilitate the regular and accurate administration of the representatives and training databases;
- to provide support for all members across the divisions, bearing in mind the imminent changes of health and safety legislation, particularly the introduction of 'roving safety reps';
- and to realise the full potential of health and safety representation and support, as proven by TUC/LRD research and studies, as a major incentive and tool for the recruitment and retention of members."
Proposition 23/03 (AP9) Health and safety
That this annual conference examine the financial possibility of appointing a dedicated full time Health and Safety official, and look into the setting up of a safety reps network or similar, where union safety reps in different branches can contact each other, share resources, and support one another in taking a more proactive rule in health and safety in our industry.
Training
Skillset
102 When the national training organisations were replaced by Sector Skills Councils, Skillset was awarded early recognition as a Sector Skills Council when it was awarded its trailblazer status. Skillset have historically taken responsibility as the national training organisation for members employed in the audio/visual industry. Members in arts and entertainment, particularly those employed in theatres, were covered by another national training organisation known as Metier. For a whole variety of reasons Metier has been less successful as a training organisation than Skillset. One of the most important reasons why Metier failed in its role was the lack of support given to it by the employers in the industry who have an appalling record on training.
103 As the role of Sector Skills Councils has been developing, it has become clear that Skillset, in its current form, is too small to have its licence renewed in 2004 and must expand its footprint so that it covers 500,000 workers. The theatre employer federations, SOLT and TMA, have been in discussions with DCMS in trying to establish a new Sector Skills Council for members working in theatres., They are seeking to align the theatre members with the staff working in tourism and museums.
104 The National Executive Committee of BECTU have, in considering this issue, adopted the policy position that there should be a single Sector Skills Council covering the creative industries in the United Kingdom, and that this Sector Skills Council should include staff working in the audio/visual industry and in live theatre.
skillsformedia
105 skillsformedia has now developed into the number one careers advice and guidance centre for those working in, and those wishing to enter, the UK audio/visual industry. The arrangement between BECTU and Skillset has now been agreed as an ongoing partnership arrangement. skillsformedia is in the process of reaching agreement with the main broadcasting employers to act as a first point of contact for those employers in respect of enquiries about graduate entries into the industry. Increasingly skillsformedia is being regarded by Government as a model partnership arrangement and as a productive example of unions and employers working together for the benefit of both.
106 At its meeting on the 26 January 2003, the National Executive Committee considered a report from AGS Martin Spence that the present Student Link-up arrangements were failing to deliver real benefit either to students or to BECTU. The development in recent years of BECTU's relationship with sector skills councils, training providers, colleges and students called for more realistic and wide-ranging terms than those contained in rule 6(c)(i). The NEC endorsed the report, and agreed accordingly to submit a proposed rule change to the 2003 annual conference in a special rules session as provided by rule 45(b).
Proposition 24/03 (SRS 1) Student membership
That this annual conference in a special rules session approves the following alteration to rule under rule 45(b):
Rule 6(c)
Delete subclause (i) in its entirety and substitute:
"In furtherance of rule 5(d) the union shall endeavour to support relevant sector skills councils, training providers and students by supplying, so far as resources permit, trade union and industry information and opinion, and by encouraging students to take an active interest in the work of the union and to become members when they complete their courses."
TOSCA Project
107 The TOSCA Project is, at the time of writing, almost at the end of its third year, and has achieved much during that time. Funded through the Union Learning Fund (ULF) with £150,000 over two years, it is well on its way to meeting its target to deliver basic and key skills to workplaces, through the training and support of Union Learning Representatives. The project has now been rolled out to the English regions, and much of this year has been spent identifying, supporting and nurturing the new and emerging Learning Reps. Individual steering groups have been set up to monitor and advise the project in each workplace, and many new employers are expressing interest in becoming involved in what has become a very successful organisational device for BECTU.
108 The Project was officially launched at Sheffield Theatres last December and throughout the next year there will be many more launches and events, the next one being at the Leicester Haymarket in April 2003. TOSCA produces a regular newsletter for learning reps written by the full-time Project Manager and the learning reps themselves, and now has pages on the main BECTU website.
109 TOSCA has been widely disseminated to BECTU members through various committee briefings and regular articles in Stage Screen & Radio. It has published documents for the TUC to raise the profile of the project, and the learning reps and Project Manager have attended numerous TUC seminars and conferences around lifelong learning.
110 Many new activists are coming forward as learning reps, particularly women and members who are fresh to trade union activity. Finally the TOSCA Project continues to grow in strength and engender interest from all divisions within BECTU.
BECTU Training Committee
111 The BECTU Training Committee has convened regular meetings throughout 2002-2003, and the following members have served during that time: Ann Jones (RPD), Phil Shingler (RPD), Ian Morton (RPD), Nick Ardizzone (LPD), Antoinette Graves (LPD), Najla El Sharif (LPD), Ken Rowles (LPD), Rob Willsher (IB), Nicky Allen (IB), Pete Harding (NEC and BBC), Maurice Marshall (A&E), Sebastian Barnes (A&E), Bill Whittemore (Labs), Vernon King (Black Members Sub-Committee). The Committee has been fortunate to benefit from the experience and knowledge of the chair Ann Jones, who has been elected to this position for a number of years. The recently appointed Training Officer Brian Kelly acts as secretary to the Training Committee.
Union Learning Representatives
112 The new ACAS Code of Practice on rights for Union Learning Representatives (ULRs) presents all BECTU's divisions with new opportunities for recruitment and growth. They also provide some divisions with familiar challenges in how to invoke rights centred on traditional work relationships in professions dominated by atypical employment relationships. The Training Officer will continue to explore new means to achieve representation for freelance members.
113 At present the A&E division, through the TOSCA Project, has made the most progress in the appointment and supporting of ULRs with the support of the Union Learning Fund (ULF). The experience gained from the project will be reviewed and passed on to other divisions to apply according to their own identified needs. The Training Officer will work with divisions to identify suitable opportunities for further ULF (and other external funding sources) supported initiatives.
114 A successful bid for ULF support was submitted in January 2003 towards establishing a dedicated BECTU learning website. This will act as a one-stop-shop for everything to do with education and training. It is intended to be a focus for union learning reps as they are recruited more widely throughout the union.
Proposition 25/03 (AP10) Training
That this annual conference welcomes the implementation of the ACAS guidelines for the time off and training of Union Learning Representatives. Conference instructs the National Executive Committee further to investigate innovative ways of implementing the new guidelines into the working lives of freelances in our industries.
SOC note: SOC urges the branch to consider compositing with AP11 following
Proposition 26/03 (AP11) Training
That this annual conference welcomes the implementation of the ACAS guidelines for the time off and training of Union Learning Representatives. Conference recognises that for the foreseeable future the role of Union Learning Reps in BECTU recognised workplaces will become increasingly important for our workplace organisation and membership growth. Conference therefore resolves to support and encourage the learning agenda in the following ways:
- to seek to include provision for Union Learning Reps in all existing and future recognition agreements;
- to encourage the negotiation of learning agreements at BECTU recognised workplaces;
- to strongly encourage all committees of the union to include education and training on every agenda.
Top-up training for health and safety reps in Scotland
115 This is a course is designed for safety representatives working in the theatre industry who have recently attended the Stage 1 TUC course. It aims are to:
- identify the role of the safety representative within theatre organisations
- develop standard approaches amongst safety representatives for executing their functions
- devise strategies for situations and issues theatre safety representatives are likely to face
- establish a self-supporting network of safety representatives within the Scottish theatre industry
- identify further resources and support that safety representatives can use during their tenure.
116 The SafetyNET project continued through the year with most safety reps in participating theatres successfully completing their TUC stage 1 training. The pursuit of functioning health and safety committees and processes has been extremely successful following this training. There is a much higher level of activity in these venues and members in general feel much more involved in the union as a result of this increase in activity. The safety reps handbook is nearing completion and the theatre specific top-up training is ready to take place. As a result of the positive feedback on this project there is a general increase in enquiries from theatre members for training as reps.
The BECTU Scottish Health and Safety Passport Scheme
117 The pilot scheme is now well progressed and has provided health and safety training for an initial 30 BECTU Scottish freelance members. As a result of intensive research amongst members, a Production Safety Course for Film and Television was selected as a core course, which is also mapped against the SVQ X3 qualification to enable interested members seek further qualification in Risk Assessment. 27 candidates successfully completed this Production Safety Course held in the Training Facilities area of Scottish Screen in Glasgow.
118 The Passport Scheme is being undertaken in conjunction with BBC, PACT, Scottish Screen, Skillset and SMG, with BECTU as lead partner. The aim is to provide candidates with a Health and Safety Passport Document, which indicates to prospective employers the certification achieved by the freelance member, thus enhancing Scottish freelance members' skills and employability.
119 A first aid course was also conducted by Scottish Screen on the 18 February 2003, and freelance members have also applied to attend this course as part of the Passport Project.
120 All courses were oversubscribed, and simply because of work demands some last minute 'reluctant' cancellations occurred. Feedback from both courses indicates the scheme has been exceptionally well received by the Freelance Members, and both attendees and Freelance Branch members generally have eagerly enquired of future developments. The Passport Scheme, however, is subject to annual bid for future funding, and it is therefore hoped to extend the variety of courses offered and eventually to widen out the scheme's remit.
Representation on external training bodies
121 The Research Officer continues to represent BECTU on the Skillset Research Committee, which has overseen Skillset's third industry census in June 2002 and prepared for the first Skillset Workforce Survey in early 2003.
122 The Training Officer represents the union on the following bodies: the Skillset Investment Committee, the Skillset production Committee the skillsformedia Partnership Group, the Arts Council Theatre Technicians Training Panel, the Theatre SafetyNET Steering Group, the TOSCA Steering Group, the Health and Safety Passport Steering Group, the Federation of Entertainment Unions Training Committee, the TUC National Training Network, the FT2 Board, FT2 Personnel, the BFI Industry Qualifications group.
123 BECTU lay representatives and full-time officials have represented the union on the following organisations and Committees: the British Screen Advisory Council, the Skillset Board, the AVITG, the National Film and Television School Board, the Cyfle Board, the Broadcast Training Wales Board, the Scottish Screen Training Committee, S4T, Skillnet South West, Screen East Training Committee, Midlands Media Training Committee, Yorkshire Media Training Consortium, Northern Media Training, Skillstrain South East, Northern Ireland Film Commission Training Committee, the skillsformedia Partnership Group.
124 BECTU is represented on the council of Film and Television Freelance Training (FT2) by the Vice President Tudor Gates, Peter Cox and the Training Officer Brian Kelly. The union congratulated FT2 on achieving a national training award from UK Skills and an award from Skillset for their contribution to training.
Equality
General Equality Committee
Following the departure of Trish Lavelle in August 2002 the General Equality Committee held two informal meetings without a servicing paid official. The new Training Officer Brian Kelly has since begun servicing the Committee.
Proposition 27/03 (AP6) Women's working committee
That this annual conference calls for a women's conference to be held within six months to encourage women members to become activists, and to discuss the feasibility of asking the National Executive Committee to form a women's working committee in line with the disability and black members' working committees.
Black Members' Subcommittee
126 The Black Members' Subcommittee continued working to its two priorities last year - recruitment of more ethnic minority workers into the union, and attempting to formulate practical ways to increase ethnic minority employment within the BECTU industries.
127 On recruitment, the committee held another open evening attended by about 100 members and non-members resulting in people joining on the spot and subsequently. Now that several such events have been held the committee has resolved to move them to phase two: holding a general meeting for BECTU ethnic minority members to discuss the activities and initiatives of the committee and the wider union, before moving to the social and networking aspect.
128 On the second priority, the committee formulated a new initiative aimed at the film and broadcasting industries. They proposed an event that could be described as a jobs fair. Titled Move on up: jobs and commissions in film and broadcasting, it envisaged two sets of short, one-to-one meetings. First there would be meetings between black professional media workers and the personnel within the broadcasting companies who are personally responsible for hiring decisions. Second there would be meetings between black independent production companies and commissioning editors and others responsible for making decisions on film funding. To provide a focus for the day, the event would include a seminar and a reception.
129 A lot of activity was undertaken throughout the year to build support for the initiative. By year's end BECTU had won the support of the TUC, the BBC, Granada, the Commission for Racial Equality, the broadcaster Trevor Phillips who has just been chosen as the new head of the CRE, and the government: General Secretary Roger Bolton and Journal Editor/committee organiser Janice Turner were due to meet Broadcasting Minister Kim Howells in March 2003.
130 The committee also took time to assess its own composition and that of the divisional committees, resulting in a welcome addition to its ranks of new members from the Arts & Entertainment and Regional Production divisions. And members of the Black Members' Subcommittee were seconded onto divisional committees in cases where they had no members from ethnic minorities.
131 The committee, along with the Disabled Members' Network committee and the General Equality Committee, had asked the union to undertake equality monitoring of the BECTU membership in order to identify ethnic minority, women and disabled members. This complex project was carried out at the end of 2002. The resulting information will enable the Black Members' Committee and the divisions for the first time ever to communicate directly with ethnic minority BECTU members, which the committee fervently hopes will result in greater participation of minority ethnic members at all levels of the union.
132 Committee members represented the union at many meetings, conferences and events throughout the year including the TUC Black Workers' Conference and the Respect Festival in London.
Disabled Members Network
133 The Disabled Members Network committee has remained active since it was reconvened in April 2001. Meetings were held on 31 January, 17 April, 25 June and 18 September 2002. A proposed joint meeting of all three BECTU equality committees in November 2002 was postponed until after the new Training Officer, Brian Kelly (who also has general equality responsibilities), took up his post in January 2003. At the time of writing that meeting was scheduled for 1 March 2003.
134 Ann Pointon has continued to serve as the chair of the committee. The union is grateful to Ann for making time in her busy schedule of professional commitments to lend her expertise on disability matters. Representation from the Independent Broadcasting division has unfortunately continued to be lacking. The committee understands that it may sometimes be difficult for divisions to send representatives who identify themselves as disabled. Nevertheless, it is concerned to preserve its status as a committee of disabled BECTU members.
135 Equality monitoring of delegates to BECTU's 2002 annual conference saw 83 forms returned from 240 delegates, a response rate of 35%. Of these, six respondents (2.5%) identified as disabled. Until the results of the Mapping the Membership exercise begun at the end of 2002 are known, this tiny sample remains the sole indicator of the proportion of disabled people in BECTU's membership. 23 respondents indicated a wish to know more about the union's equality activities, twelve of these including disability-related activities (some were equality reps who may not themselves identify as disabled).
136 From the March 2002 issue, Stage Screen & Radio was made available in audiotape format to one visually impaired member who had requested it, but who has since left membership. His departure happened to coincide with a large increase in the transcription charge made by the RNIB after the July/August 2002 issue. Audiotape copies (or other formats) of the journal remain available on an as-requested basis in line with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, and transcription costs by other service suppliers are being explored. In September 2002, members of the Disabled Members Network committee drew the attention of the journal editor to legibility problems for some visually-impaired readers caused by reversing-out certain fonts in certain colours as part of the page design. The accessibility of BECTU's printed material and website are matters which the DMN committee intends to return to in 2003.
137 In April 2002 the DMN committee welcomed as a guest to its meeting the BBC's Disability Employment Adviser, Eddie Lynch. He spoke then of his aim to target the BBC at disabled people as an accessible employer, and hoped to host a dedicated careers event for disabled people. Later in the year the committee was disappointed to learn that this initiative had not materialised, but others had, including a successful internal BBC e-mail Disability Forum.
138 The launch of the Broadcasters Disability Network Manifesto on 1 May 2002 was welcomed by the DMN committee, which noted over succeeding months the various ways in which employers and other bodies produced action plans as urged by the Manifesto.
139 The committee also welcomed the BDN's sponsorship of free listings for up to 100 disabled people in the Production Base database (BECTU members already receive a 25% discount for their entry). There were still places available in October 2002 when the committee enquired about uptake.
140 The DMN committee observed with interest the successful transfer of the fourth Disability Film Festival in June 2002 to a "mainstream" venue, the National Film Theatre. The event proved a valuable test of the NFT's commitment toward both disabled film-makers and disabled audiences, and is due to return there in June 2003.
141 In July 2002 the committee learned that the Government had decided to defer implementation of the recommendations of the Disability Rights Task Force on improvements to disability legislation. This had been a 2001 Labour Party manifesto undertaking. After the Queen's Speech in November 2002 failed to make any mention of the matter, DMN members were encouraged to take part in a mass lobby of parliament on 10 December 2002 organised by the Rights Now! Campaign.
142 The DMN committee held its first meeting at BECTU's new head office in Clapham in September 2002. Two members of the committee, Ann Pointon and Turlough MacDaid, had visited the building before BECTU moved in and had submitted a report to the NEC recommending disabled access improvements. At the September meeting the committee experienced at first-hand the inaccessibility of the smaller meeting room, and welcomed news of a proposed property deal which would provide a modern fully-accessible extension to the head office building.
143 In November 2002 the DMN committee was disappointed to learn that the Film Council had drastically trimmed earlier proposals to spend £6m of Lottery grant on equipping every British cinema with subtitling and audio-description technology.
144 BECTU delegates from the DMN committee attended the TUC's second motion-based national Disability Conference in November 2002. The first conference, in December 2001, heard delegates (including BECTU's) talk about discriminatory treatment in the workplace, despite the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act and the creation in 2000 of the Disability Rights Commission. After consulting unions, the TUC produced a report The Experience of Disabled Trade Unionists in the Workplace. This coincided with the DRC's own legislative review, which detailed the commission's view of the deficiencies of the DDA. The TUC's report bolstered this with examples of the practical experience of disabled workers. The third TUC Disability Conference is scheduled for Blackpool in December 2003.
145 In response to the government's Equality and Diversity consultations, the DMN committee recommended to the NEC that BECTU support the principle of a single equality commission provided the role and resources of the Disability Rights Commission were not eroded. The NEC endorsed the recommendation in December 2002. The DMN committee will continue to debate the issue as the arguments for and against develop.
146 The chair of the DMN committee represented the union at a major conference in December 2002 on the theme Health, Safety and Disability: are there conflicts at work? The conference was jointly organised by the Health and Safety Commission and Disability Rights Commission. A key issue was the extent to which "health and safety" was being used by employers as an excuse to avoid the recruitment and retention of disabled workers.
147 2003 is the European Year of Disabled People, and the BECTU Disabled Members Network committee will be looking at how it can make a significant contribution to the Year.