Nov 13 - GGCA Stands By Its Right To Represent Civil Service Membership

Following the comments made by Unite in the media, the GGCA Committee stands by its right and its obligation to represent its civil service membership.

A spokesman for the union: "The civil service/GDC conundrum has been discussed and debated at length. The GGCA has negotiating rights for the civil service and Unite has negotiating rights for the GDC - clearly each union has to bring forward the issues relating to their respective memberships.

"We maintain that the GDC has had lower entry requirements, shorter qualifying periods, the ability to promote two grades up and promotions not regulated by the PSC. Therefore, we reiterate that integrating the GDC into the civil service without engaging the GGCA civil service membership would be unfair.

"Even if the entry requirements have now changed, historically the entry requirements for the GDC were much lower than the civil service, and as these entrants remain in employment, this distinction persists today. This is why, in her question, the President of the GGCA stated very clearly that they "have had" lower entry requirements. There has not been any economising with the truth.

"As already highlighted by the President of the GGCA, most recently on Viewpoint in April this year the GGCA Committee would welcome debate and discussion to resolve this issue, as long as this is done in an open and transparent manner, with the full inclusion and consent of the GGCA civil service membership." 

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