Certification officer complaint

The complaint was made to the certification officer (CO), Stephen Hardy, an independent officer appointed by the government to ensure that trade unions carry out their statutory duties and comply with the law.

The union denied the allegations from the onset and complied fully with the CO throughout the complaints process.

Despite knowing these complaints had little or no foundation, we were obliged to invest substantial amounts of money, and time, defending the union.

This week, after over a year of involvement, I am pleased to announce that the CO has dismissed 6 out of the 7 complaints in their entirety and upheld only one part of the other on a technicality.

The CO has made it clear that none of the complaints had any impact whatsoever on the general secretary election result and has requested no sanction or further recommendations for the union.

It is now a matter of public record that neither the union, nor I as general secretary, systematically disregarded our own rules, as was claimed.

I hope this matter is now closed, as significant union resources have been spent on this case. Resources that I know you, our members, want spent on saving jobs, tackling out of control workloads, guaranteeing better education funding, and delivering for UCU members. That has always been, and remains, my sole goal.

You can read the full CO report here, but we have also provided a five-page summary of the main points here.

Jo Grady
UCU general secretary