NATIONAL DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE: PROPOSED REVISED BYELAWS

NATIONAL DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE: PROPOSED REVISED BYELAWS
Over the past 18 months the National Discipline Committee has dealt with a number of cases which have highlighted the room for some improvement in the NDC byelaws.
These cases typically involve allegations of bullying and harassment and have multi-member parties and multiple witnesses.
The current NDC byelaws require all parties, representatives and witnesses to be in the same place at the same time. They also require both parties and their representatives (and on occasion, a witness) to be in the same room at the same time.
This arrangement has caused a variety of challenges for the committee – it only takes one party/representative/witness to be unavailable for a proposed hearing to be postponed and the tension that is created by having both parties in the same room at the same time sometimes can be problematic and could even conceivably be prejudicial to a fair hearing.
When cases are postponed there is a financial consequence in terms of costs that cannot be recovered, and the delay in resolving cases also causes stress for the parties.
The proposed revised byelaws are intended to deal with these problems in the following way:
A. It modifies the procedure so that the NDC is able to interview the parties and witnesses all separately from each other.
B. Notes of the discussions with witnesses become part of the agreed bundle and are therefore open to scrutiny and challenge by the parties and their representatives.
C. The revised byelaws include timescales to ensure, as far as possible, that there is no unreasonable delay in the process from start to finish.
The NDC believe that the revised byelaws will make the NDC process more cost effective and less stressful. It also believes that there is an arguable duty of care upon the union to ensure that in bullying and harassment cases in particular, the complainant is not compelled to be in an uncomfortable or even intimidating situation during the course of the case.
As colleagues will be aware, NDC byelaws need to be agreed by the NEC and then presented to the next available General Conference for ratification. The attached byelaws were endorsed by the NEC on 28 January and a motion endorsing the terms of this LTB will be submitted to General Conference. If approved, the new byelaws would become operative for all cases lodged under Rule 14 following the close of General Conference.
The Committee would welcome any observations or questions for clarification. These should be addressed to my office at CWU HQ.
Yours Sincerely,
Simon Sapper
Assistant Secretary
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LTB 60/2016 – NATIONAL DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE : PROPOSED REVISED BYELAWS