can you recommend a union to join?

[Ginni]

My partner is in some trouble at work and is likely to have to attend a disciplinary hearing. Realistically such a hearing would not take place until mid to late February. Can anyone recommend a union he can join in order to get union representation at the hearing? I know that some unions need you to have been a member for a certain amount of time before they will accompany you in hearings in person, so he'd need one which will, if he joined now, would accompany him in Feb.

Thank you!

What type of work does he do?

It may be that won't represent him if the problem predated him joining up.

I think the qualifying period for membership, usually 13 weeks, is quite standard. Is there a recognised union in his workplace, or one which his colleagues are members of? My union applies the 13 week period for full legal representation, but our own shop stewards or convenors do sometimes represent people in the workplace immediately or quite quickly. Also, reps with knowledge of his particular employer/dept/people doing his kind of job will probably be able to represent him more effectively.

However, the ability of unions to represent people effectively in the workplace does depend on people actually joining and supporting their union - we rely on people joining for money for the union's services including staffing (in my union's case at regional/national level, and also someone to provide admin support to the branch officers), legal support, publicity material etc. Our representatives including branch officers remain employed by the Council but get paid time off to help members which is granted on the basis of membership.

There is no recognised union in his workplace. The reps in his workplace are just co-employee's, I would be suprised to hear they have any experience of disciplinary hearings or have any knowledge or skills to represent him. One of his co-employees has carried out disciplinary investigations and has sat on disciplinary panels before, so she would be ideal to accompany him if necessary. However, if at all possible he'd prefer to get a union rep to accompany him - any suggestions? He works in the public sector.

I'm surprised that he's in the public sector and that there isn't a recognised union in his workplace. The best union probably still depends on where he works and also possibly on his job.

In this situation he has much more chance of a co-employee who is a union rep being able to help him than someone more senior. I work for a council and am in Unison, as is dp but a different council and branch. The branch will sometimes represent new members, but they wouldn't get regional officers who are employed by the union rather than co-workers to represent them.

Some workplace reps do have experience of disciplinary hearings - dp is now full time for the union as an elected branch officer but still employed by the Council he works for, but has been a union rep for years, both part time for the union and part time at work, and previously he only had time off for disciplinaries and some union meetings, and he represented people in some very serious disciplinary cases (sometimes very successfully).

no union, no union reps unfortuantely. I looked at the unison website and it does say the wouldn't represent unless you have been a member for 13 weeks if I remember rightly, and I think there was something about the incident predating when you join as a member too. Oh well, at least we can get legal beforehand once we have more information, copies of statements etc, and then we have the backup of the co-employee I mentioned. I'll try not to worry to much although it is such a major stress and we'll be first time parents by the time there is a hearing, if there is a hearing! Thanks anyway.

btw the reps I mentioned are for something internal we have, a staff forum type affair, they're not union reps, just people who volunteer to attend meetings, most would be on my partners level or even junior to him, and there would be no reason for any of them to have experience of these matters.

OK, that makes more sense, employers often try to use staff forums to avoid having real trade unions.

If he works for Central Government (Civil Service) or some employers who have taken on Civil Servants he could try the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) - they don't have a specific qualifying period but may not take on a case that pre-dates membership unless there is a good reason for him not to have joined sooner (not knowing the union operated in that workplace may be enough of a reason).

If it local government then GMB is often the union.

Even if the union is not recognised it might be prepared to help if it is an area of potential membership it is trying to get into.

Thanks southernsoftie that sounds promising, i'll look into it.