UNISON – Written evidence (TUP0014)

1. UNISON is the leading public service trade union representing over 1.3 million members, over one million of them women, working across local government, the health service, education, the voluntary sector, police and probation, the utilities and for private companies.

2. UNISON is unique among trade unions in having a political fund which has two sections, one the Affiliated Political Fund which is affiliated to the Labour Party and the General Political Fund which funds UNISON campaigning independent of any political party.

Members have a clear choice between joining a fund affiliated to the Labour Party or not. They can also opt out or transfer between funds whenever they wish. This structure has existed since the formation of UNISON in 1993 reflecting the political traditions of the partner unions which merged to form UNISON. The Affiliated Fund carried on the tradition of links to the Labour Party which COHSE and NUPE had since the party was formed. The non party campaigning General Political Fund had been established in 1987 following legal action against NALGO’s  Make People Matter public service campaign, which had been deemed to be ‘political’.  This led to NALGO recognising the need to establish a political fund so that it could undertake such campaigning.

3. The General Political Fund has around 800,000 members, the Affiliated Fund 400,000 and nearly 100,000 members do not contribute to the political fund. Members accept that as part of the union’s function to represent and protect them a key element is to campaign in the public and political spheres. Members also recognise the long direct relationship some unions have had with the Labour Party where policies are promoted that will help them. With the ability to opt out at any time for those who wish, there is no pressure from members to change the political fund arrangements. Indeed these arrangements have to be agreed by all members every ten years through the Political Fund Ballot which is overseen by the Certification Officer. Ballots in 1995 and 2005 confirmed this arrangement and our most recent ballot at the end of 2014 agreed our political fund with 87% voting in favour.

Will Clauses 10 and 11 of the Trade Union Bill have an impact on the finances of political parties?

4. It is a major change to the operating arrangements of trade union political funds whose effect will not only be to reduce the numbers contributing to the funds, and so reduce the ability of unions to campaign in the public arena, but also through the affiliated unions it will have a huge impact on the funding of the Labour Party. No other party will be affected. It will have serious implications for the leading opposition party and therefore impact on the democratic accountability of the Government and on the ability of Labour to fight election campaigns on a near to equal footing.

5. In the case of UNISON, members have made a clear choice as to contributing to the Affiliated Fund linked to Labour. The retrospective nature of this Bill rips up that agreement with our members. The very limited transitional arrangements of requiring renewed agreement within three months in writing provides an almost impossible task for unions to undertake and will in reality undermine the political funds in many unions, particularly the affiliated unions with a diverse working class membership.

6. UNISON currently has 1,200,000 members in the two sections of our political fund. As the Bill is retrospective rather than just for new members we will have to contact all of them again about their membership. All evidence suggests that it is likely that over 90% will not respond in the manner required by the Bill – in writing within three months. These figures are based on the experience of response rates to general mailings not just in unions but across the board for a range of organisations who undertake mail shots. Most of our members have their connection with the union through face to face contact in their workplace or local branch and do not respond to mailings to their home address.

7. An opt-in process also changes the perspective of members to the work of the political fund. They expect the union to campaign as part of our normal activity. Suddenly asking them to pay what would be seen as a separate additional amount for the campaign work and affiliated organisation of the political fund is not something most will respond to. This will mean that the union’s political fund will lose about £6 million per year, each fund losing £3 million. It will also cost the union several millions of pounds in mailings and staff time.

8. The law requires members who opt out to either be reimbursed the amount of their membership fee that goes into the political fund or not to pay the political fund element by their membership rate being adjusted. This will mean the union having to undertake the task of paying back to members who do not opt-in the relevant small amounts due to them or changing every member’s subscription rate.

9. UNISON has a sliding scale of 11 membership rates related to earnings and the amount going into the two sections differs, with the Affiliated Fund element being 6.5% and the General Political Fund being 3%, so there could be more than 30 rates of payment to be calculated for reimbursement or for subscriptions levels. The ability to do this with direct debits and the willingness of employers to undertake this complexity with check off is problematic. Given this task it may call into question the whole structure of UNISON’s political fund for the future.

10. The transitional arrangements require this to be done in three months and for the member to respond in writing. In addition, this agreement by the member will have to be repeated every five years. These requirements are made, one would have to conclude, with the intention of making it difficult to get members to opt-in and close down the ‘political’ campaigning work of trade unions and their funding and participation in the Labour Party.  No other organisations are subject to such onerous conditions. The work and spending of the political funds is subject to legislation and is overseen by both the Electoral Commission and the Certification Officer. The Lobbying Act also brought in new reporting requirements and reduced by half the money that third parties such as our General Political Fund could spend during election periods.Whilst we believe that both Clauses should be dropped from the Bill, if it were to pass the requirements should not be retrospective on current members who have made a clear choice.

11. The framework of the opt-in to be done within three months in writing is not credible or possible. In UNISON’s case our rulebook is very clear about the membership processes for the two sections of the fund and their organisation which has been agreed by annual conference and is agreed and overseen by the Certification Officer. The rule book changes and the agreement of the Certification Officer could not be done in this time frame. The various proposals by the CSPL regarding opt-in proposals have always suggested a possible timeframe of five years. The political fund ballot is every ten years. The three month period is untenable.

12. As stated earlier, the framework proposed by the Bill would reduce membership of our political fund by over 90%. In the case of UNISON’s Affiliated Fund our current income of around £3 million per year would be reduced to less than £300,000.

13. At present we pay the Labour Party an annual national membership affiliation fee of £3 for each of the 430,000 members who choose the fund. This amounts to £1,290,000.

We also pay affiliation fees for the number of members relevant to the Scottish, Wales and English regional party organisations and to local CLPs. Membership payments are recorded as donations by the Electoral Commission. Other direct donations are made to the party to support its election campaigns. For the General Election in 2015 we donated £1 million nationally and further amounts to regions. There are now significant elections every year and so we make donations for these campaigns - for the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly, Mayors, PCCs, EU elections and local government elections each year. All of this is declared officially and is in the Party returns to the Electoral Commission. So the national affiliation fees to the party would be reduced by £1,150,000 per year and also the regional affiliations by £60,000. Election donations average out over the five year cycle nationally and regionally to around £550,000 per year and would be reduced by around £500,000. On average the UNISON Affiliated Fund support to the Labour Party would be reduced by £1,700,000 per year.

14. The Committee should note that the Affiliated Political Fund is not just a fund that provides money for the Party. We have our own democratic structures of elected lay members which reflect those of the Party with national and regional committees. We also have our own regional and national meetings to discuss policy and elect delegates to the Party – at constituency level, to party regional conferences and boards and to the National Conference and Labour NEC. Our representatives being involved at every level of the Labour Party broadens the democratic involvement of many working people in the political life of this country when so many feel excluded. It also brings to the fore policies such as the National Minimum Wage, maternity and paternity rights and health and safety matters among many others which union members have called for. It will also affect our joint work with socialist societies on issues such as equalities and the environment.

15. Our delegations to Labour conferences reflects our requirements that two thirds must be women and have reserved places for under represented groups so we add to the diversity of the party and widen the experiences that are heard. We also provide training and mentoring to support people to become councillors for their local communities and building on this have supported many of the ‘working class’ MPs at Westminster. Our fund pays for this work which allows ordinary lay members to have a voice in the Party and our wider democracy.

All this would be massively curtailed, or even ended, by the Bill’s undermining of our political fund. It would fundamentally change the social make up of the Labour Party and bring into question its current, and historic, structure of being a party of individual members and affiliated societies and unions.

16. The changes to the Labour Party rules following the Collins report are significantly different to those of the Bill. What it did was to make it a requirement that members of union political funds actively made a choice that they agreed some of their payment was to be used for the affiliation to the Labour Party. Under these party rules, union political funds may still have an opt-out system. Unions have flexibility in how they organised their political fund and the member agreement framework. In this respect it followed a similar model to that of UNISON where members have a choice as to being ‘affiliated’ to the Labour Party or not. Our fund meets the Collins requirement. The Bill is prescriptive in that it moves everything to an opt-in political fund system. It also differed in that the transitional period was for five years and various forms of communication could be used for that agreement to be recorded, not just in writing. Also, the exercise did not have to be repeated every five years.
17. The Bill will significantly affect the union’s wider involvement through the reduced funding to our General Political Fund:

1. Voter registration. At the 2010 General Election the General Political Fund (GPF) supported extensive ‘register to vote’ campaign activity. This included helping union branches to set up workplace level stalls and events - stressing the importance of participation at the General Election, encouraging the disengaged to register to vote, and informing those who worked shifts and/or who led very busy lives how to apply for a postal vote. These activities, and the material that supported them, were completely non-partisan.
2. Promoting political engagement.  At the 2010 General Election the GPF paid for a programme of member communication that sort to set out in easy to understand letters, magazines and electronic communications (including an app and social media advertising) the key issues at talking points at the election. Again these communications were non-partisan.  A follow-up survey revealed that the communications were well received and found to be useful and informative by members. 
3. Combating racism and the political far right. Since the formation of the union in 1993, the GPF has supported a range of work aimed at combating extremism and the far right.  This has included: community and national campaign activity during elections against the NF and BNP; support for campaigns that promote community cohesion and tackle prejudice and organisations such as the EDL
4. Extensive support for equalities campaigns. The GPF has provided consistent funding for a wide range of equalities activities.  This has included support for pride and barrio events in all parts of the country, funding for important educational resources provided by organisations such as Show Racism the Red Card and research funding for organisations like the Fawcett Society and their campaign to advance women’s rights.  In Northern Ireland UNISON GPF’s support for the Equality Coalition and the broader Human Rights agenda has contributed significantly to civil society engagement in the peace process. 

18. The broader effect of Clause 10 on party politics will be significant. UNISON’s political funds are used to campaign and lobby at local, regional and national levels on work and public services issues.  They have supported parliamentary lobbies, fringe events and exhibition space at a range of different party conferences, including SNP, Liberal Democrat and Labour (the Conservative Party turned down an application for exhibition space that would have showcased non-party aligned campaigns in 2014).

19. To diminish this capacity, which is already subject to considerable regulation during elections (most recently through the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014) will risk all but silencing the voice of organised working people from day to day political debate. Quite apart from this, it should be noted that union political funds play a significant role in funding the training, structures and support mechanisms that get working women and men elected into parliaments, assemblies and council chambers across the UK. At a time when there is growing public disaffection with what many perceive to be a an unrepresentative professional political elite, reducing the capacity of trade unions to get working class people elected risks creating further alienation from the political process.      

If the two clauses will have such an impact, how would that relate to the CSPL report and party funding reform?

20. The CSPL report by Kelly, and the previous Hayden – Philips report, contained proposals regarding union political fund opt-in requirements that were part of a wide package of party funding reforms that would meet public concerns while treating all main parties equally to maintain a fair playing field.  Recognising the reduction in funds for the main parties by their proposals, additional state funding was suggested along with reduced election spending caps. The major changes proposed were not enacted because it was accepted that change needed to be with consensus between the parties. As well as being part of a wide reform package it also proposed a possible transition period of five years.

21. The current Bill is a unilateral proposal by one party in Government to make changes to union structures that will have a fundamental effect on the funding and organisation of one other party, the main opposition Labour Party. Unions are already subject to more regulation and oversight than any other organisations that operate in the civic and ‘political’ arena. As well as electoral legislation union spending is overseen by the Electoral Commission and the Certification Officer in regards to our political funds The recent Lobbying Act particularly affected the operation and reporting of the UNISON General Political Fund and reduced its spending as a third party in election periods.

22. The Government’s own independent Regulatory Policy Committee view of the impact  assessments produced for the Bill said it added unnecessary burdens and red rated it.[1] The proposals on political funds would be an additional burden.

23. Other donors to party funding are much less regulated. Companies can donate following a one off vote of shareholders at the AGM. Non-incorporated associations without shareholders have no restrictions. However, the profile of political donations has changed over the years with that for the Conservatives coming much more from rich individuals or private companies as well as funding coming through other bodies than from party members. Here there is little regulation in comparison to that faced by trade unions.

24. It has been the accepted since the 1950s that changes to the basic framework of party funding should be by consensus of the leading parties and be seen to be fair. This was the position of Churchill, Thatcher and others in the Conservative Party until recently. It was also the accepted basis of the Hayden Philips review and the Kelly report. The other leading political parties still accept this convention. Indeed, Labour introduced Short money to support the policy work of opposition parties recognising that democracy required a level playing field for Governments to be held better to account and in 1999 significantly increased it when the Conservative Party had financial problems. It is to be noted that the current government has recently said it will cut Short money by 19% to opposition parties while itself increasing its own spending on special advisors.

25. The departure from this convention on getting agreement on changes to party funding will have major consequences. It will undermine just one party who are the main opposition and make day to day running of the organisation difficult leading to significant staff cuts. It will undermine the ability of Labour to fight elections on a fair basis by cutting off funding from Labour’s main donors, the affiliated unions, for election campaigns at all levels of representation from councils to Westminster and devolved administrations.

26. Through the Conservative Party taking unilateral action that attacks a key funding stream of the opposition Labour Party it will make future reform more difficult to reach through consensus. It will give financial supremacy to one party over the others which means there is no pressure to reach common agreement. Government by a different party would have the example now being set of taking action against the funding sources of other parties. The matter could become a tit for tat battle between parties that undermines our democratic system and bring politics into greater disrepute.

27. The requirement in clause 11 for unions to provide more details of their political expenditure in their annual returns to the Certification Officer is yet another bureaucratic burden that other organisations do not face. UNISON is strongly of the view that no purpose will be served by providing more details of political expenditure to the Certification Officer.   Returns to the Certification Officer and, during and after controlled spending periods, to the Electoral Commission, already mean that union political expenditure is amongst the most transparent in politics – and certainly more transparent than political spending by non-incorporated associations and the funding of campaign organisations on the right such as Tax Payers Alliance. 

28. The low ceiling of £2000 would mean reporting on a host of small scale expenditure such as hotel accommodation for delegations, training events, equipment, regional forums, room hire, booking stands at conferences, local campaigns about libraries or hospital closures. This is regulation and reporting taken to an extreme degree.  All Affiliated Fund membership fees and donations to Labour are declared by the Party to the Electoral Commission.

11 February 2016