via healthactivists@unionlists.org.uk

Karen Reissmann must be one of the best known and admired members of Unison in the NHS. But she has been barred from standing for re-election to her service group executive position. Karen, the focus of an immense campaign of solidarity across Britain, has been barred because, say the election officials, she has not had an unbroken period of three months during which she was a healthworker. That? s because in December she was sacked and on strike!

It will be a total disgrace if the rules of the union are interpreted in a way to deny Karen her right to stand. Every Unison member should make as much fuss about this as possible, contacting executive members and the union? s national leadership to request that Karen is allowed to stand.

An appeal will be decided in less than seven days time, so this is urgent!

The SGE eligibility rules state:

9. To be eligible for nomination:

a. A member must have been in full membership for at least three months prior to the start of the nomination period and be employed within the relevant service group

So there are two conditions applied:

1. A member must have been in full membership for at least three months prior to the start of the nomination period

Karen has been a full member for three months, and if she were not, the national rules also state:

7 CEASING TO BE A MEMBER

7. 1 LOSS OF ELIGIBILITY

Any member ceasing to be eligible for membership within Rule C. 1, and who does not fall within the classes of membership set out at Rule C. 2, shall automatically cease to be a member unless:

7. 1. 1 the National Executive Council decides otherwise; or

7. 1. 2 she or he intends to be absent from the employment defined in Rule C. 1 for a temporary period only, in which case she or he may be allowed by decision of her or his branch to retain membership.

So it would be up to the national exec, or Karen’s branch, to allow her to stand. Karen’s branch has of course agreed to this.

2. and be employed within the relevant service group

There is no doubt that Karen is now in the relevant service group (Karen has secured a job as an agency health worker), and it would be a perverse reading to say that the rule says she has to have been a healthworker for three months previously. In any case, the reason she was not because she was sacked and on strike in December. Did the union really expect her to get work while the rest of her colleagues were striking?

Please complain about this to anyone you can in the union! Complain to any union exec members you know, to Dave Prentis, to any friendly officials. We can get this decision changed on appeal.