Role of the branch representative and branch committee

Recruiting

Organising

Representing members

Collective representation

Individual representation

Campaigning

Other tasks

Role of the branch committee

While one person may hold the fort for a while, and often organising starts with just one person taking the initiative, no workplace can be organised with just one rep or activist.

People will contribute different things to the union depending on their skills, interests and abilities. This will mean that you will have a variety of different people involved. The branch committee is where they meet to co-ordinate, plan and make decisions in between members meetings.

The branch committee is made up of all the branch officers and departmental reps in the union plus any activists that want to attend. At a very minimum it should consist of:

• chairperson
• secretary
• treasurer
• organising officer
• one departmental representative from each of the remaining departments

The composition of the committee should broadly represent the composition of your membership. It is especially important that you have a representative from each department and each work site so that decisions are representative.

Committee meetings should be held regularly (i.e. every fortnight or month) to discuss union business. The types of things on the agenda should reflect the headings in the role of the rep above and include:

Recruiting

• Who has recently joined or left? Why and what follow up do we need?
• Who is attending staff inductions and following up new starters?
• Identifying where non-members are and who will approach them
• Keeping membership records up to date

Organising

• Discussing members’ meetings and planning action agreed by the members
• Do we have new people who want to be involved? How will we encourage them?
• Identifying who needs training and how they will get it
• Finding out members’ problems and concerns, eg drawing up surveys
• Co-ordinating full members’ meetings or department meetings on issues
• Developing strategies to educate and inform members on issues
• Developing strategies to get members involved
• Planning and co-ordinating production and distribution of leaflets and newsletters

Representing members

• Discussing members’ meetings and planning action agreed by the members
• Hearing reports on meetings with management and discussing responses
• Hearing brief reports on new cases or progress with individual representation
• Identifying areas where common themes in individual representation require a collective approach to management
• Allocating individual representation work to members of the committee

Campaigning

Discussing and planning campaigns that you are running or that the membership has directed you to run

Other Tasks

• Distributing information from regional or national office
• Keeping up to date with procedures, agreements, policies and contractual conditions at your workplace
• Keeping up to date with where to find information if you, or members, should need it
• Identifying areas where you need to obtain support, advice or assistance from other sources
• Keeping in contact with other unions in your workplace such as UNISON or AUT
• Keeping records of the branch

Branch committee positions

Branches differ in the positions that they create. Often one person will fulfil more than one role. Common examples of doubling up roles include the branch chair being the press officer, any officer also being a departmental rep, merging secretary with treasurer, or negotiators having other roles as well.

The branch must also identify those members of the committee that are able and willing to take up individual representation work. There must be enough of these people to deal with the volume of individual representation work in the branch. For small branches this may be at least one or two, medium branches three or four and large branches should consider more. Unless these people are very experienced they should have undertaken NATFHE training in this role. Many experienced representatives also take refresher training from time to time.

Typical roles

Branch secretary

The secretary is one of the principal officers of the branch and together with the chair ultimately answerable for the actions of officers and committee members. The secretary has to work closely with the branch chair in running meetings of all sorts by preparing agendas, preparing and distributing minutes, preparing and giving reports.

The secretary has an important role in administering the branch by handling correspondence including sorting incoming communications for information, action or display. The secretary is responsible for filing information and keeping records such as minutes of meetings with management, management policies and procedures and contracts of employment.

The secretary is an organiser and needs to be confident in delegating tasks and checking that the branch committee and members are working together effectively. The other duties which are equally important involve recruiting new members, liaison with region, area committees and head office, and representing union policy both inside the workplace and in the wider labour movement.

The role often also includes involvement in collective bargaining and handling individual members’ problems.

Chairperson

The chair is one of the principal officers of the branch and ultimately answerable for the actions of officers and committee members. The chair has responsibility for the conduct of meetings and assistance with preparation of agendas and minutes.

Other equally important duties involve recruiting new members, representing union policy both inside the workplace and in the wider labour movement, and often, involvement, in collective bargaining and handling individual members’ problems.

Treasurer

The work of the treasurer involves liaison with regional treasurer on branch expenditure, maintenance of records and accounts and preparation of balance sheet, (membership recruitment may also be the treasurer's specific responsibility where there is no Membership Secretary or where it is seen as a shared responsibility).

The union's accounts are subject to audit and it is the responsibility of the branch treasurer to:

• make arrangements for an annual audit
• ensure that the expenditure of funds is limited to the monies made available by the region
• ensure that branch funds are used for purposes within the aims and objects of the Union.

Organising/membership officer

Recruitment and retention of members is a collective responsibility in which everybody on the branch committee has an important role. Membership is not simply an administrative task and for this reason the title organising officer may be most appropriate for the person elected to co-ordinate this work

The main job of the organising officer is to make sure that membership recruitment and retention work has a high priority and is carried out effectively in particular by:

• Working with departmental and part-time staff reps
• Keeping abreast of local NATFHE activity, campaigns and achievements
• Co-ordinating implementation of organising strategies

Main organising responsibilities:

• Establishing and maintaining a work area/department reps network
• Identifying branch members to help with specific membership tasks - especially mapping
• Co-ordinating branch mapping
• Keeping NATFHE noticeboards up to date
• Maintaining records of membership and membership and liaising with the membership section at head office
• Securing staff lists from personnel and compiling lists of non-members to target for recruitment
• Organising face-to-face discussions with those targeted and follow-up
• Organising recruitment of students in training for FHE who are entitled to free membership
• Organising a NATFHE slot on induction periods for new staff
• Ensuring that there are effective communications with members

Departmental/faculty/school etc representative

Department representatives are essential for a properly functioning and representative branch. They are often the first point of contact for members and non-members. Consequently the way people view them is important and will often determine the way people think about the branch or union.

Department representatives are responsible for:

• Communicating branch committee decisions and activity to members in their department by:
  - talking one-to-one with members and non members
  - holding departmental union meetings
  - reporting at departmental team meetings
  - distributing materials such as surveys, agendas, minutes, - newsletters or publicity and campaign material
• Feeding back the views of the members in their department to the committee
• Giving initial advice and guidance to members in their department (even if it is just a referral to the appropriate branch officer),
• Keeping accurate lists of members and non members in their department
• Recruiting non members and new starters
• ndentifying, encouraging and supporting members in their department to get more involved

Some, more experienced departmental representatives, also get involved in raising departmental issues with management at a departmental level and some will do individual representation work for those in their department.

Negotiator

The branch should elect people to meet and, where necessary, negotiate with management. Under no circumstances should a representative ever meet with management alone so each branch should have at least two or three people elected and trained for this role at any time.

Because the branch chair and secretary have the main co-ordinating roles in the branch they are often also two of the negotiators. However, for good reasons, many chairs and secretaries prefer not to take up this role. These reasons include being too busy, wanting to develop others for the role, allowing other more skilled negotiators to take up the role or because they prefer dealing with other aspects of union business.

As with individual representation negotiating involves a range of activities including meeting with members and the branch committee, giving reports, preparation, planning and negotiating with management.

Part-time staff representative

The part-time staff officer should be seen as the focal point for part-timers in the branch. They should keep abreast of issues that concern part-timers and should keep in contact with the part-time staff members. This might involve dealing with individual members’ problems or making representations to management.

Because part-time staff membership is often lower than full-time staff membership the part-time staff officer should work with the organising officer, departmental reps and other committee members to locate, organise and recruit part-time staff. You may wish to set up a part-timers’ committee to help with this.

Equality officer

The equality officer has responsibility to promote the union’s policies directed towards the elimination of behaviour, attitudes or practices that discriminate against people on irrelevant grounds. Currently it is illegal to discriminate on grounds of sex, gender reassignment, marital status, race, ethnic origin, colour, nationality, disability, sexual orientation and religion or belief. Other irrelevant grounds, some of which may soon be the subject of legislation, include age, politics, class, caring responsibilities, HIV status or other personal characteristics such as size. The equality officer should also advise the Branch Committee on procedures and practices that will protect members from individual or collective discrimination.

Publications/press officer

Every branch should have someone responsible for NATFHE communications in the institution and press relations. This person whilst accountable for communications should not be expected to do everything. Individual branch members may be prepared to take on specific and limited tasks, for example a newsletter.

Where a branch elects a publications /press officer they should have responsibility for contact with local press, radio, and TV to publicise Branch activity and achievements; liaison with regional PRO's and, where appropriate, Information Officer at Head Office. They may also be responsible for production of branch bulletins and other publicity material.

Management grade representative/correspondent

This person should act as liaison between the management grade lecturers in the branch and the branch committee. They should be part of the branch management grade negotiating team and liaise with the regional representative on the Management Grades Standing Committee.

Health and safety representative

This role includes investigation of potential hazards and causes of accidents, taking up of health, safety and welfare complaints of members (such as stress, overwork and bullying) and inspections of college premises. The role also involves representation of members to the employer (often in consultation with health and safety inspectors), attendance at meetings of safety committees, reporting on safety matters to the branch and organising around health and safety issues.

The importance of having as many representatives and activists as possible

One of the most serious weaknesses in branches is not having enough activists, department and branch representatives. This is usually caused by placing insufficient importance and energy into encouraging and involving others in the branch to take part. Getting others involved in an ongoing way is important if a number of crises are to be avoided.

Burnt out representatives

Where one or two individuals take responsibility for all the activities of a branch they are rarely able to give any of the areas enough time. They can become worn out and often feel unable to meet the genuine needs of members. Neither representatives nor members gain from this situation. Having as many representatives as possible lessens the burden on representatives and decreases the likelihood of them becoming burnt out or isolated.

Inactive branches

Branches that leave all the negotiations and individual representation to a very small number of activists will experience problems when key branch officers leave the post or retire (and become vulnerable to complete collapse). Developing a large (active) branch committee where facility time is shared among a number of activists enables the branch to respond to changing circumstances.

Difficulties recruiting activists and representatives

It is difficult to recruit people to vacant positions when people believe the job requires large time commitments and is relatively unsupported by other members. Younger members of the union may not be willing to take on such a burden at the start of their career. The best way to ensure posts are filled quickly is to involve as many people in the branch as possible and share the facilities among them.

Vulnerability to erosion of facilities

A major reason for loss and erosion of facilities is lack of use. Branches that do not use their entitlements often find that management ‘reclaims’ them. When current entitlements have been under utilised it becomes difficult to justify to management why it should agree to re-instate them, or extend entitlements in other areas. Ensuring you have enough activists to use your facility time decreases the chances of facilities being under utilised and eroded.

Better service to members

Service to members will be better if you have representatives spread throughout the institution. A representative who is defending a member in their own department will better understand the issues, local management and local procedures. Local representatives also take less time to understand issues and communicate and meet with members and local management. This maximises not only use of precious facilities time but increases the chance of success.

More access to members

Having representatives across as many departments as possible increases the visibility and accessibility of NATFHE. It provides members with direct and ongoing access to NATFHE representatives for advice and information. It makes them feel part of the union and is good for organising and recruitment.

Good for participation and democracy

Having active representatives in every department increases the branch’s ability to consult as quickly and widely as possible. Participation and consultation encourage involvement in NATFHE and ensure that your decisions are representative of the workforce.

Increases your bargaining power in negotiations

Members are more committed to decisions that they have had a part in making. Where the union has representatives in every department within the institution the union is able to truly reflect the views of the staff. The ability to demonstrate to management that your position is representative of members’ views, and deeply felt, increases your bargaining power and improves the results of negotiations.

Protection for representatives

Management sometimes attempt to portray lone reps as trouble-makers or isolated individuals who are not representative of the wider membership. In this situation it can be tempting for management to think that the ‘problems’ the union raises might disappear if the representative changed.

The active involvement of a wide range of representatives makes it clear that the views brought to management are those of the membership and not individuals. Furthermore, it demonstrates that changing any single rep will not stop the union from bringing forward issues.

The best protection for reps in the face of hostile management is to convince them that despite the trouble it will cause, ‘picking off’ reps will not further their aims. Only the active support of other reps can achieve this.

Easier to get time off and cover

The trend towards decentralised management and local or departmental budgeting can mean that the allocation of large amounts of facilities time to single reps can place a disproportionate burden on local budgets or local staff if they have to cover for the rep. In practice, even if additional central funding is provided, it can be difficult to get permission from local managers or to get cover for large amounts of time off. Having representatives across a range of departments avoids pressure being put on reps to not use all the allocated time.

Furthermore, it is often easier to get ad hoc increases in facilities time for one-off issues from a local manager if the current time allocated is not perceived as a burden to operational requirements. The cumulative effect of many reps receiving small informal increases to their facilities time will always be larger than that of a single rep.

How do we get more representatives and activists?

If you think you may not have enough branch or department representatives and activists you need to take time to address the problem. See Building a strong and active branch and Getting people involved. NATFHE’s publication Trade Union Facilities will assist you in getting facilities for your branch. You should also speak to your regional office to see how they can help you develop and implement a plan to rebuild your branch.

NATFHE toolkits provide advice for branches and links to other sources of information. Anyone seeking specific advice in respect of the issues covered by this toolkit should consult their branch officers in the first instance, who in turn may need to take advice from NATFHE regional officials. Important time limits often apply; for further information about these or if you are seeking to pursue a legal claim on the issues covered in this toolkit, you should not rely on the toolkit alone but should seek additional advice from the union.