Consultation on Reviewing Structures for LGBT Members in PCS

Introduction
At the PCS Annual Delegate Conference in 2009, motion A48, aimed at taking
forward a review of Proud, the self-organised group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and
trans (LGBT) members in PCS, was submitted by the National Executive Committee,
and was carried. A copy of the motion is set out below

“Conference recognises that many Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender

(LGBT) people continue to experience significant levels of discrimination and
harassment and that in many countries, LGBT people are at risk of physical
violence, persecution and death.

Conference condemns those parties of the Far Right and those within society
that seek to oppress human rights and to justify violence and abuse against
LGBT people

Conference reaffirms its support for LGBT members and LGBT rights and
agrees that PCS must work to ensure that LGBT issues are given a high
priority in all of our bargaining, campaigning and organising activities.

Conference also believes that PCS structures for LGBT members must be
built on the principles of self-determination and democratic accountability
whilst providing a safe environment for LGBT members to participate

Conference congratulates PCS Proud for their pioneering work in supporting

LGBT members, in raising awareness of LGBT issues, in campaigning for
equal rights and in organising and developing LGBT members into union
activism

Conference welcomes the review that is being carried out by Proud into the
organisational effectiveness of the Group and notes the publication of the
interim report.

Conference calls on the NEC to continue with that review with the aim of

 Improving services and support to LGBT members

 Raising the profile of Proud within PCS
 Raising awareness of LGBT issues within PCS democratic structures
 Forging stronger links between Proud and other PCS democratic
structures
 Encouraging and supporting LGBT members to participate in Proud and to
take up other PCS elected positions
 Campaigning to improve membership equality monitoring around sexual
orientation and gender identity
 Ensuring that the structures in place to represent the interests of LGBT
members at all levels are build on the principles of self determination and
democratic accountability

and to produce a report with recommendations and consult with Branches

and Groups on the emerging conclusions by no later than December 2009.”
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Implementing and Consulting on Motion A48
Proud organises within PCS as a membership-based organisation for lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender members. Membership of the group is voluntary and
Proud currently has around 1,000 members as well as associate members who
support the aims and objectives of the group.

Motion A48 reaffirms the union’s commitment to LGBT equality and to the role
played by Proud in supporting, organising and defending LGBT members and
campaigning on the agenda for LGBT rights and instructs the NEC to build on the
work done in this area.

It also calls on the NEC to develop proposals aimed at forging stronger links
between Proud and other PCS democratic structures and to ensure that the
structures in place to represent the interests of LGBT members are built on the
principles of self determination and democratic accountability.

The issue around Proud and LGBT structures in PCS and how stronger links can be
forged with Groups and Group equality structures in particular, was the subject of
some discussion and debate on the motion at ADC and this paper aims to set out the
NEC’s consideration of this issue and to consult with Groups, Branches and
Regional Committees as to how this might be best achieved.

Annex B at the end of this consultation paper sets out the questions on which the
NEC is consulting and a form for response

The closing date for response is 19 March 2010.

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Consultation on reviewing Structures for LGBT Members in PCS

Equality Structures in PCS

At a national level, the NEC has set up equality forums to represent the interests of
women, black and disabled members. Each forum is made up representatives
appointed by the NEC together with representatives elected or appointed from
amongst Groups, National Branches and Regional Committees.

The forums meet three times per year for the purpose of advising the NEC on issues
concerning women, black and disabled members and support the exchange of
information on bargaining between representatives from different areas of the Union.

The forums for women and disabled members are each chaired by one of the
Union’s Vice-Presidents with a full time officer acting as secretary and there is no
officer structure. The forum for black members, following a decision of the PCS
ADC, elects their own Chair and Vice Chair and members of an Editorial Board who
produce the forum’s newsletter

Each forum also organises an annual seminar for women, black and disabled
members in order to provide a networking opportunity and to brief and consult with
members on current issues as well as to support and encourage those members
from under-represented groups to become more active in PCS.

In addition, PCS has been working to establish networks for black and disabled
members at regional level with the purpose of providing networking and support to
members who may feel isolated within their own work environment, to support and
encourage those members into union participation and activism and to link members
at regional level in to the work of the national equality forums.

Proud Structures
Proud, like all of the equality structures in PCS, is based on the principle of self-
determination: that is that people who are affected by particular issues are involved
in identifying those issues and taking forward the solutions (nothing about us without
us as Disability Rights Groups have said).

Proud organises in a different way to the other equality structures in PCS however
and it has its own structure and constitution drawn up in accordance with PCS
policies and endorsed by the Proud membership.

An annual general meeting of Proud members is held at which motions may be

submitted for debate and elections are held for the Proud National Committee made
up of officer posts and regional representatives.
The reasons why Proud organises in a different way to the other equality groups is in
part historic and related to the struggle to progress the agenda for LGBT rights and
in part related to the relatively recent introduction of legal protection from
discrimination.

There are also other differences affecting LGBT members that have led to a different
model of organising:

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 • Not all LGBT members are “out” at work or “out” within union structures, so
the identification of an LGBT representative from Group Executive and Branch
Executive Committees may be more difficult to achieve.

• Workplace and PCS LGBT monitoring is also in its infancy and statistics for
LGBT membership and LGBT representation within PCS structures is as yet
unreliable (although efforts are being made to remedy this).

• Very few Groups and National Branches as yet have structures or

Committees in place to represent LGBT members and this also makes the
identification of LGBT Representatives more difficult.

It is also the case that whereas the forums for other equality groups were set up to
link directly into bargaining issues, there have been fewer bargaining issues
identified around LGBT workplace equality, although this may well be because the
inequalities experience by LGBT members are less well researched in the absence
of workplace monitoring.

Democratic Basis of Proud Structures

Democratic accountability is built into the way that Proud organises in the following
ways:

Elections
The Proud National Committee is made up of
• The Proud Officers: Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Organiser, Membership
Secretary, Training Officer and Editor
• The additional posts of Women’s Officer, Trans Officer, Disability Officer, Web
Officer, Black members’ Officer, Young members’ Officer and
• A representative for each PCS Region.

Elections are held at the Proud AGM and conducted by individual secret ballot and
postal ballots are provided to any member unable to attend. Elections are also held
at the AGM for the delegation to the TUC LGBT Conference.

The principles of LGBT people electing their own LGBT representatives is key to the
principles of self-determination on which Proud is built and is also a model for the
elections within PCS structures for young members and for black members.

The inclusion within the Proud democratic structures of regional representatives also
reflects the importance of regions as a basis for union organising and again is a
model, which the networks for other equality groups have recognised. The contact
details of Proud regional representatives are notified to the PCS Regional Offices
and Regional Organisers with a recommendation that they should be seconded to
the regional committee

Unlike the other national equality structures however, Proud is not organised on the
basis of Group or National Branch representation and in the election to the Proud
Committee there are no reservations or limitations on the number of seats that may
be held by any one Group or National Branch.

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Consequently, elected members of the Proud Committee are more likely to be from
the DWP and Revenue and Customs Groups, but this is unsurprising as these are
the two largest employers of PCS members and both Groups, unlike most others,
have well-developed structures in place at Group level for LGBT members

Motions Debated at the Proud AGM

Motions debated at the Proud AGM contain instructions to the Proud National
Committee or instructions to the NEC to take action. Motions appropriate to the NEC
are referred to the PCS Equality Committee in the first instance, which in turn makes
recommendations to the NEC.

Training
Proud has a well-developed programme of training including Stage 1, 2 and 3
training courses for LGBT members and reps and a course on dealing with sexuality
and transgender issues in the workplace which is available to all PCS Reps through
regional offices

An annual seminar is also organised by Proud for LGBT members in PCS in a

similar way to the seminars for other equality groups

Communications
PCS Proud has its own web site with links to the PCS web site
(www.pcsproud.org.uk) and publishes a regular magazine to members

Relationship with the NEC

In order to strengthen the relationship between Proud and the NEC, the NEC also
appoints two Proud Liaison Officers from amongst NEC members who are then
seconded to the Proud National Committee.

The NEC liaison officers are invited to attend and speak at Proud meetings and
events and generally to represent the concerns of Proud to the NEC.

Relationship with other PCS Equality and Relevant Structures

In order to foster closer working relationships, Proud sends a representative to each
of the PCS equality forums in an observer capacity and Proud also has
representation at the Personnel Policy Forum, made up of representatives from
Groups and National Branches appointed to develop and share best practice on the
PCS bargaining agenda on personnel and conditions of service issues.

In addition, the Chair of Proud is invited by the President to attend consultative and
other meetings held with PCS Senior Lay Representatives.

The NEC has also set up an Equality Committee that includes NEC members as well
as representation from each of the forums and from Proud to take an overview of
equality issues in PCS and to support joint working arrangements and joint
campaigning. Proud representatives and forum representatives provide an update to
each meeting on current activities and this in turn is reported back to the NEC.

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Options for Changing LGBT Structures

As PCS Groups and National Branches have begun to examine and address their
own equality structures, a question has arisen about how those Groups and National
Branches in taking up the agenda for LGBT members can participate or relate to
Proud as the national PCS organisation for LGBT members.

Does this require that Proud should be organised in the same way that the national
forums are organised or is there better ways to forge the links between the Proud
National Committee and other PCS elected structures?

In 2008, Proud initiated an organisational effectiveness review and set up a review

Group from inside and outside of Proud with the aim of reviewing:

• Proud recruitment and membership

• Communication and recognition of Proud’s role and achievements
• The support that Proud offers directly and indirectly to Proud members, PCS
members and activists
• Representation of and support to the various Proud constituencies based on
sexuality and/or gender identity
• The mechanisms for Proud input to PCS policy making at Group, Regional
and National Level

The review presented an interim report to the Equality Committee and to the NEC in
January 2009 and the conclusions of that review are set out in Annex A to this
consultation

The NEC accepted the findings of the review report but felt that the issues raised
were of sufficient importance to establish a clear policy through a debate at national
conference and that is what led to the submission of motion A48.

Since the debate at Conference, the NEC has given consideration as to how Proud
might strengthen its links to Groups, National Branches and other democratic
structures within PCS and whether in particular this requires a new structure to be
introduced based on representation from Groups, National Branches and Regional
Committees.

For consistency, and to uphold the principle of self-determination, this would require
that the LGBT representative should be lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender and
be an elected or co-opted member of a GEC, National BEC or Regional Committee.

The NEC has taken into account the views of the Proud National Committee and the
report of the Proud review, which did not recommend changing structures and has
concluded that the disadvantages of changed structures would significantly outweigh
any advantages for the following reasons:

Advantages identified
• The introduction of consistency between the national equality structures
• A clear link to Groups, National Branches and Regional Committees.

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Disadvantages identified
• As LGBT representatives are not sufficiently well identified within the PCS
membership system, not all structures are likely to have LGBT
representatives and not all LGBT members or reps may be “out” within their
branch or Group
• The principle of LGBT members electing their own LGBT representatives
would be lost
• The experience and work programme of Proud in organising, campaigning,
handling personal cases and delivering education programmes would be lost
• The expertise of members of the Proud National Committee would be lost as
Groups would be limited to just one representative
• Members of Proud might choose to organise outside of PCS or to leave PCS
membership.

Another option might be that a forum for LGBT Reps from Groups, National
Branches and Regional Committees should be set up to work in parallel with Proud
but this would in our view result in an unnecessary duplication of effort and
resources and would cause confusion in developing and progressing policy. This is
not therefore an option that the NEC would recommend.

Options for Strengthening Links between Proud and Other PCS

Democratic Structures
As the introduction of a Group-based national equality forum is not considered to be
the most appropriate way forward, the NEC has gone on to consider how the
relationships with Groups, Regions and National Structures can be strengthened in
addition to acting on the conclusions of the Interim Report from the Proud
Organisational Review

The Equality Department has now undertaken a mapping exercise to identify the
lead officers on equality for all the major Groups and National Branches and a
second stage of that work will be to map the equality structures in place.

This data will enable links to be strengthened between the Equality Department,
Proud and the other equality forums and the officers with lead responsibility for
progressing LGBT and other equality issues within their Groups and National
Branches

Our proposals for strengthening the links between Proud and other democratic
structures within PCS include:

• Mapping the structures that exist at Group, Branch and Regional level for
LGBT members
• Improving membership monitoring of sexual orientation and gender identity
• Arranging regular meetings for Group and National Branch Equality Officers to
discuss the bargaining, campaigning and organising agenda for LGBT
members with Proud Officers
• Producing a PCS Equality Officers Briefing on a regular basis, to include
coverage of Proud and LGBT issues
• Producing a briefing paper for Group and Branch Equality Officers on Proud
and how it organises for LGBT members
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 • Raising awareness of the Proud web site and Proud newsletter as a
mechanism for communication
• Providing information to Proud members about the make-up of the Proud
National Committee and at election time encouraging more members from
outside DWP and HMRC to stand for positions
• Monitoring where delegates attending Proud training courses come from and
including sessions on becoming active in Proud
• Allocating responsibility for liaison with Group and National Branch Equality
Officers to members of the Proud National Committee
• Having an LGBT representative on each Regional/Country Committee.

The NEC does not believe that either replacing the current Proud structures
with, or setting up, an additional forum made up of LGBT representatives from
Groups, National Branches and Regional Committees is the most appropriate
model for progressing the interests of LGBT members in PCS.

The NEC recommends its proposals for strengthening the relationship

between Proud and other democratic structures in PCS.

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 Annex A

Interim Report of the Review of Proud Structure, 2009

Conclusions

In brief, no convincing arguments have been put forward for an entire overhaul of the
self-organised nature of Proud although there are arguments for other positions.
This is not least because it would mean a huge amount of additional work and
disruption at a time when members are under the most intense pressure.

In addition, the Black Members Forum seems to be moving towards extending its
position outside of the constituency model in order to increase its reach and
inclusivity. It would therefore be unhelpful to move against the tide in this respect.

The simpler and more effective move would be to follow the list of initial
recommendations from the review panel in order to more fully incorporate the highly
proactive efforts of the existing Proud model. This would require a re-statement of
position from the NEC and Equalities H&S in order to reinforce the intention of robust
support for LGBT members.

Recommendations

1. Amend organising strategy specifically to include LGBT members and

campaign to improve membership monitoring
2. Encourage closer links with PCS Regional structures
3. Where LGBT members are on region and country committees, ensure that the
LGBT person is more fully representative.
4. Proud regional reps should be co-opted to regional committee in order to be
more representative and accountable. (Similar to current arrangements for
Young & Black members) This would then link to the learning agenda.
5. Proud should have greater input into regional/country training programmes
6. Proud-trained LGBT lay tutors should be invited to lay tutor meetings
7. PCS National and Group Constitutions should be reviewed to affirm the
commitment to Equality/Diversity
8. The relationship between Proud and the Equality Committee should be
reviewed
9. Ensure the AGM elections provide an accessible franchise to members.

In addition, the Equality Department is about to embark on a mapping exercise of

Group, National Branch and Regional equality structures to identify what structures
are in place as well as to identify the lead officers on equality negotiations. This will
be useful in building links with negotiating structures and consulting on and
considering how those links can be strengthened.

As part of this process it would also be helpful to map TUC regional equality
structures and levels of engagement of PCS regions.

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 Annex B

Response to consultation on Proud and LGBT Structures in PCS

Response submitted by

On behalf of Branch/Group/Region

How have you consulted with your LGBT members? Please provide details.

Questions

Do you agree with the NEC’s recommendation that strengthening the links between
Proud and other PCS democratic structures is the most appropriate model for
progressing the interests of LGBT members in PCS?

If so, what are the reasons for doing so?

If not, what model do your members’ propose for promoting the interests of LGBT
members in PCS?

Additional comments and suggestions are welcomed.

Please send your responses to:

Carl Banks
Bargaining, Equality and Policy Support Department
(formerly the Equality, Health and Safety Department),
PCS,
160 Falcon Road,
London,
SW11 2LN

Or email equality@pcs.org.uk or fax 020 7223 8363.

The deadline for receipt of responses is 19 March 2010.

This document is available to download from the PCS website.

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