e-views

The Certification Officer, the government watchdog for trade unions and employer organisations, has recently launched a website.

The site has 10 separate areas of interest. The Certification Officer's latest annual report, published last month, can be accessed chapter by chapter. The report has appendices listing trade unions with a summary of statistics on union's annual returns, which include financial information such as union income and expenditure and assets. Other sections of the report cover mergers, the financial state of unions' political funds and what general secretaries earn in pay and benefits.

The site covers the decisions made by the officer over complaints covering trade union elections, financial irregularities and breaches of union rules. A full text of the Certification Officer's decisions made after August 2001 is available as well as a selection of decisions made before then.

Further links cover a listing of all unions and employer associations as well as providing links to their own websites where available.

There are online guides to help visitors on some of the legal procedures involved in dealing with the Certification Officer including a guide to political fund ballots. Guidance on making a complaint about a union and background to hearings are provided in another link. Finally there is a "frequently asked question" (FAQ) section, which included links to other government sites such as the conciliation and arbitration service ACAS, the Employment Tribunal Service, and the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

http://www.certoffice.org