The FCA has proposed a new model of staff representation which seeks to enhance the Staff Consultation Committee (SCC) and add reserved seats for Unite the Union and the FDA.
We consider this an important first step in the journey to full Union recognition and collaborative decision making at the FCA and PSR. We look forward to working with the FCA to champion the needs of our staff and demonstrating the benefits a recognised Union will be able to deliver. Our staff-led ‘Unite the FCA’ Action Plan is a start to outlining what we, as a Union, will be looking to advocate for on behalf of staff.
With that in mind, our members this week voted, provisionally, to accept the proposed offer of a seat on the new Committee and to co-operate with the proposals.
In co-operating we will hope to achieve the reassurance and transparency colleagues need in order to have confidence that these proposals will be meaningful.
This includes:
- Publishing the Advisors’ original findings. This is an explicit commitment ExCo and the Advisor’s made to staff on several occasions and is paramount to ensuring ExCo deliver on their repeated commitments to transparency. It is an FCA value to ‘act with integrity’ meaning all staff, no matter how senior, are expected to be open and honest. Honouring this commitment, no matter how difficult, is a clear measure of the integrity of our CEO and ExCo, and therefore the trust and confidence, we as staff, can have in their leadership.
- Free and fair elections to the Staff Consultation Committee in a timely manner. Staff expect and deserve the right to elect their representatives to all seats on the Committee. Last SCC elections were held prior to 2019 and are well overdue.
- Equal training, support and time afforded to the Union Reps taking up these seats and associate workload as other members of the SCC are afforded.
- Transparent and open negotiations when revising the current Terms of Reference that will dictate the scope of the new Committee.
- An independent and trusted arbitrator, such as ACAS, brought in to mediate disputes over the terms of reference set for the new Committee.
- ExCo honouring their commitment to an open dialogue with the new Committee and involving the new Committee in conversations early in the decision-making process.
Progress on these terms will be crucial to re-establishing our trust in staff representation. Our members will review our participation in the new SCC based on progress against these and other areas. Given the commitments the FCA have made to us so far, we are hopeful that progress can be achieved. This includes an in principle agreement that the Union may have access to FCA platforms and communications channels in a manner similar to that of the SCC, and an agreement that it is up to the Branch to decide who takes up Unite’s seat on the SCC.
On recognition and collective bargaining:
Whilst these proposals are a welcome first step, they do not yet represent Union recognition at the FCA, nor do they allow staff collective bargaining rights.
When it comes to upcoming decisions on our base pay, performance grading, hybrid working and our pensions, this means that ExCo and the Board continue to have sole discretion. The Staff Consultation Committee is exactly that – consultative.
By comparison, almost every other comparable public sector body allows collective bargaining in the form of Union recognition. Decisions on pay, benefits and conditions have to be made with staff and cannot be taken unilaterally by management. This means staff have legal rights to negotiate and bargain with their employer on decisions that affect them.
This almost always results in better outcomes and improved trust. The Bank of England and Prudential Regulatory Authority offer us long-established models for how successful Union recognition can be delivered in a manner that is also respectful to those who do not wish to be represented in this way.
Without this, staff at the FCA and PSR continue to have the fewest rights and protections of any comparable public sector employees.
It is the minimum of what staff deserve and are entitled to at the FCA and PSR. We believe that this is what the vast majority of staff wish to see.
It is therefore right that Staff have the final say on how they are represented.
If the FCA won’t ask staff how they wish to be represented, Unite the Union will.