Originally Posted by
baggersup
Every company I've worked with in the UK in IR consulting knows who their union members are. No one has ever mentioned the data protection act in this regard.
I'd have to search the archives to be sure, but during the last ballot I think there was a procedure in which BA sends to the union every month their updated leavers and joiners or sumsuch, based on BA's records.
There was discussion last time about BASSA either not waiting for this or having the ballot delayed while awaiting the update from BA.
It's foggy, but there was definitely some union membership update that BA was providing BASSA from their files.
I've done audits of entire memberships of this type in my consulting work. It takes time and requires an outside accounting firm in most cases.
In the U.S. with my clients, I've seen three cases of court-ordered union membership audits when votes were in dispute.
My last company refused to give lists of Union members quoting the Data Protection Act. Even when the names were wanted as an up to date check for consultative local ballots.....No great problem but I think they enjoyed it!!
Many members (especially those in management) choose to pay by direct debit these days. which makes the whole process a bit more difficult when trying to get up to date lists.