Joining a union

[Jordanbee]

A manager kept passing me some colleagues work to do as he was good friends with them. Most of the time I did not do the work and left it. Now our teams have split these colleagues are still trying to pass me their work claiming another manager who has just left said I would be doing their work. One of the colleagues is well known for not doing all their hours and goes shopping and sunbathing.

I'm getting really down now as I thought once the teams had split I would not get hassle any more but they are trying it on still. My supervisor said I would not have to do their work now the teams had split. I have asked the old supervisor to resolve this issue as they now manage the new team. If it does not get resolved am I best to join a union and put in a grievance. This feels like bullying now.

It is not in my job description to do another team's work.

@Jordanbee join the Union now.

Unions do not typically take on pre existing issues or have a minimum membership period. Keep pushing back on the work, put it in an email to confirm conversation these tasks are not part of my role etc.Let the tasks go undone but make sure everyone is aware you are not doing them.

I work for the Local Authority in South Yorkshire and was going through some problems with management at work in June/July 2023. I was a member of Unison at the time, but found that my union rep was very unsupportive - he was understanding of my concerns and told me that he did not agree with the managers who were very unpleasant to me, but refused to go to a meeting between me and the managers and offered no other support. This led me to leave Unison in October. I am now looking to join another union but have concerns about being in a similar situation again and ending up with a union rep who doesn’t seem to be that interested in supporting me. Would GMB be any better?
I have also heard about Affinity. I came across another discussion where someone warned against Affinity on the basis that membership is more of an insurance policy and that I would need legal cover on my home insurance in case I end up in an employment tribunal. Can anyone offer any advice on which union I would be best joining?

You don’t need to be in a union to raise a grievance.

you need to be clear what the issue is - are you being expected to do more work than anyone else, or you’re having to work over your hours to get through it, or just you don’t like the work being given to you by the other team?

The main issue was that the team was very short staffed, which I am told was due to the same managers pushing most of the other workers away from the team. This led to a lot of the work being piled on me. I felt that I couldn’t take any annual leave or not a lot at once, maximum a couple of days off because no other workers could cover my role. I was also given a lot of extra work (some of which I wasn’t trained for) on top of my main responsibilities in the job. I have now left this team but still work for the same local authority, so my question really is about which union would be best for me when facing any similar situations in future.