I’m a union rep in the civil service dealing with casework - AMA

[HopelessHannah]

Hi - I’ve been working as a union caseworker for years, and just when you think nothing can shock you, something comes along that does.

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Hi OP you seem very sensible and to have your head screwed on. I hope if I ever need representation I get somone like you. Sorry about the throat jumpers who seem to want to hold you personally to account for all problems they have dealt with or heard about regarding unions.

@Fishinthesink exactly. We also get a lot of people contacting us wanting union support when they are not actually members, who then become quite abusive. If we have capacity, we might give informal advice, if people are polite (first bit of advice, join a union!), but most aren’t. As I said to one, if you didn’t have house insurance, and your house burned down, you wouldn’t expect an insurance company to pay out.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks my point about my grade was to show @GoldenBracelet that we do support managers.

@Landlordfornow voluntary severance in my department was an utter shit show, and basically depended on whether your director agreed with it (a number didn’t, so no-one in their directorates were allowed to take it), whether they were worried that you wouldn’t be replaced, and whether your face fitted. A number of directors did use the opportunity to get rid of the poorer performers, though. We raised the unfairness of the decision making process with HR (who had absolved themselves of any responsibility), but beyond that, there wasn’t much more we could do. But as our department are culling at a rate of knots, there will almost certainly be another scheme, and if it is voluntary redundancy rather than voluntary exit, the terms are likely to be better.

@Horrorscope it is absolutely worthwhile. I don’t think it affects your career - if anything, people are more careful in their treatment of you.

@WomanWithoutNeedOfPrefix yes, I agree, but it’s not always that black and white. Reps are volunteers, and if they don’t want to take on a case, and have good reason, then we would find someone else. I wouldn’t expect a victim of sexual assault to be a rep for someone who had been accused of sexual assault. Our department also used to have the opportunity to be asked to be moved to another job if they had a conflict of interest in something they had been asked to do (although that seems to have gone out of the window of late).

I did and said that was the reason. I've been a union member all my life but the union came out against the Supreme Court judgement, so no, I'm not paying to fight against my own rights.

@JazzyJelly I am not aware of anyone leaving because of the union’s stance against the Supreme Court judgement. But we are quite a small department. I’d certainly be up for a discussion if people wanted one.

I appreciate the offer but I don't know there's anything to discuss. The union seems utterly captured and incredibly hostile to basic safeguarding. It's very disappointing.

Thanks.

Also, you'd be surprised (or probably you wouldn't!) about how often people will post a thread on here about a workplace issue they're having, and people will pipe up with "Join a union now!".

I dunno. Maybe asking them to work with someone who hates who they [the rep] are might be a mite stressful for them?

And don't try and tell me that isn't true because every so called GC person I have ever spoken to was in fact deeply transphobic and bigoted against anyone not utterly happy in the gender they were assigned at birth. Every one.

I'm a cis woman, before you assume.