{"id":2510,"date":"2022-05-13T10:42:23","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T09:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.questlaw.co.uk\/?p=2510"},"modified":"2022-05-13T10:44:30","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T09:44:30","slug":"new-powers-for-the-certification-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questlaw.co.uk\/?p=2510","title":{"rendered":"New Powers for the Certification Office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>With effect from 1st April 2022, the Certification Officer \u2013 the Statutory \u2018Regulator\u2019 of Trade Unions will have a new set of powers, thanks to the \u2018Trade Union (levy payable to the Certification Officer) Regulations 2022\u2019 and the \u2018Trade Union (power of the Certification Officer to Impose Financial Penalties) Regulations 2022\u2019.<br><br>What does that mean for Trade Unions and their Members?<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>New Levy:<\/strong><br><br>The CO will impose a \u2018tax\u2019 on Trade Unions, at a maximum of 2.5% of a Union\u2019s income, assessed over a 3 year rolling period and payable for the first time in March 2023 by a single instalment.<br><br><strong>Complaints:<\/strong><br><br>The CO has long been empowered to deal with complaints brought by Trade Union members about e.g. breaches of rules relating to elections or disciplinary sanctions. However, the regulations introduce a new power for the CO to investigate complaints which are brought to its attention, not only by disgruntled members but by anyone at all, regardless of their standing or interest in the matter.&nbsp;<br><br><strong>Fines:<\/strong><br><br>The CO will also get new powers to order financial penalties for infractions by Trade Unions. There will be a minimum fine of \u00a3200 and a maximum of as much as \u00a320,000 (reduced by 50% for smaller Unions).<br><br>The new Regulations can be found in Schedule A3 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 and inevitably will give rise to not only debate but perhaps the risk of litigation since arguably the new provisions fall foul of the European Convention on Human Rights and certainly the International Labour Organisation\u2019s views in relation to Unions\u2019 right to associate without improper interference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With effect from 1st April 2022, the Certification Officer \u2013 the Statutory \u2018Regulator\u2019 of Trade Unions will have a new set of powers, thanks to the \u2018Trade Union (levy payable to the Certification Officer) Regulations 2022\u2019 and the \u2018Trade Union (power of the Certification Officer to Impose Financial Penalties) Regulations 2022\u2019. What does that mean ","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questlaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questlaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questlaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questlaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questlaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2510"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.questlaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2512,"href":"https:\/\/www.questlaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions\/2512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questlaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questlaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questlaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}