Trade union official
Business and administration
Level 4 -
Develop and deliver union organising activities and campaigns that will recruit and retain union members and activists.
Reference: OCC0815
Status:
SOC 2020 sub unit groups:
- 4113/03 Union officials
- 4113/99 Officers of non-governmental organisations n.e.c.
Technical Education Products
Employers involved in creating the standard:
Unite, TSSA, Royal College of Nursing, GMB, Voice, PCS, Nautilus International, POA
Summary
This occupation is found in Trade Unions, Staff Associations and Professional/Trade Associations covering a broad range of industries and sectors. The broad purpose of the occupation is to develop and deliver union organising activity and campaigns that will recruit and retain union members and activists, ensure union members are represented in their workplaces and to deliver improved terms and conditions, protection of employment rights and security of employment for union members. For many trade unions, the ultimate aim of the Trade Union Official is to help members build self-sustaining unionised workplaces with effective lay member structures in place so that members and their elected representatives in the workplace are competent and able to manage their own affairs. The occupation, therefore, involves a mixture of direct delivery of a range of member services whilst also training, supporting and motivating volunteer lay trade union activists to do the same, all the while ensuring that union activity is in line with overall union policy. The balance between the direct delivery of membership services and overseeing volunteers varies from union employer to union employer according to the respective union's operating model. In their daily work, an employee in this occupation interacts with interacts with volunteer lay member activists, other union members, potential members, employers (often Human Resources and Operations Managers but other roles too), other union staff (both from within their own employer and other trade unions), elected representatives and workplaces branches, external bodies such as trade federations, national and local governments, political parties, Non-Government Organisations and other campaigning organisations, press and media. An employee in this occupation will be responsible for implementing their union's organising strategy covering a number of workplaces, employers or a geographical area. They would normally report to a more senior union official and/or a lay member executive. They may have responsibility for leading a team of local volunteer representatives. Work allocation and reporting structures vary; Trade Union Officials may for instance have lead responsibility for collective negotiations with employers or may represent an individual case up to Tribunal level.
Employers involved in creating the standard:
Unite, TSSA, Royal College of Nursing, GMB, Voice, PCS, Nautilus International, POA
Typical job titles include:
Keywords:
Knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs)
Duties
Duty D1
Promote the purpose of a Trade Union: Promote the political and social purpose and benefits of a Trade Union to a wide audience including an historical and contemporary context; building and maintaining effective relationships with various stakeholders, including existing and potential members, employers and other relevant parties with the intention of growing the union.
Duty D2
Undertake research: Analyse the industrial relations landscape of their area of responsibility and conduct research to identify strategic leverage, including political, economic, social, legal and environmental factors, in order to identify organising and campaigning initiatives to deliver the industrial and organising aims of their union.
Duty D3
Plan and manage campaigns: Initiate, plan and lead the time bound delivery of campaigns in order to meet Trade Union objectives. This includes broad campaigns that (for instance) target membership growth and/or also specific campaigns that deliver workplace, industrial, community outcomes.
Duty D4
Recruit new Trade Union members: Lead by example to directly recruit new members to the Trade Union. Lead, inspire and empower others to do the same.
Duty D5
Retain existing Trade Union members: Develop and deliver strategies that maximise member retention of the Trade Union within own area of responsibility. Take a proactive approach that ensures current members both see and understand the relevancy and positive impact of Trade Unionism. Lead by example to retain existing members and empower others to do the same.
Duty D6
Create self-sustaining union structures: Put an effective programme in place that identifies activists, supports and develops them through a range of informal education methods. Motivate activists to engage and participate in delivering key Trade Union outcomes. Ensure appropriate democratic structures are in place across each workplace/employer/sector (for example local consultative arrangements in place managed by the lay activists).
Duty D7
Communicate: Design and implement effective communication strategies ensuring all members, potential members, employers and other stakeholders, are each kept informed, engaged and involved as appropriate of campaigns, negotiations, consultative matters and other issues. Utilise a variety of communication strategies tailored to the relevant demographic and other factors.
Duty D8
Represent Individual Trade Union members: Represent individual union members within a variety of workplace settings. Offer appropriate advice and inform members of their rights in both ad-hoc and casework situations. Provide advocacy support and representation, where appropriate. Support activists (volunteers) within your area of responsibility to do the same.
Duty D9
Undertake Collective negotiations: Act on behalf of a group of members, undertaking collective union negotiation/representation in order to either seek improvements/enhancements to workplace conditions including health and safety; or to maintain existing workplace terms and conditions, or mitigate the impact of imposed changes. Identify and utilise strategic leverage up to and including industrial action. Activity will include securing recognition agreements, negotiating pay through collective bargaining and protecting employment. Secure formal agreements where appropriate. Lead and support activists (volunteers) within area of responsibility to do the same.
Duty D10
Promote equality, diversity and inclusion: Proactively identify equality, diversity and inclusion issues/initiatives throughout daily work, seek out opportunities to drive and champion the equality agenda. Encourage activists, employers and other stakeholders to think and act accordingly. Aim for equality, diversity and inclusion within the membership and structures of unionised workplaces.
Duty D11
Promote their own union's policy / objectives: Take active measures to influence positive change for the membership through the application and championing of the union's policies. Facilitate member and lay rep involvement in the democratic structures of their union.
Duty D12
Manage and prioritise own workload: Manage a range of activities at the same time, meeting numerous critical deadlines and prioritising activity accordingly. Escalate unresolved industrial matters to appropriate senior official and/or lay member executive. Maintain effective record systems and manage data in order to document decisions and progress actions. Respect confidentiality and ensure compliance with relevant data protection legislation (including GDPR).
Duty D13
Ensure Health and Safety compliance: Promote compliance with Health and Safety legislation within workplaces. Develop a culture of safe working practice and create internal support systems to measure impact of good safety standards. Build workplace structures through a network of Safety Representatives and ensure reps are developed and supported.
Duty D14
Promote union learning: Promote the union learning agenda through a variety of means including negotiating learning agreements with employers, raising awareness of learning with reps, members and potential members, developing reps to be effective Union Learning Reps, and negotiating with learning providers.
Occupational Progression
This occupational progression map shows technical occupations that have transferable knowledge and skills.
In this map, the focused occupation is highlighted in yellow. The arrows indicate where transferable knowledge and skills exist between two occupations. This map shows some of the strongest progression links between the focused occupation and other occupations.
It is anticipated that individuals would be required to undertake further learning or training to progress to and from occupations. To find out more about an occupation featured in the progression map, including the learning options available, click the occupation.
Progression decisions have been reached by comparing the knowledge and skills statements between occupational standards, combined with individualised learner movement data.
Business and administration