Guidance

Complain to the Certification Officer about a trade union or an employers’ association

Complaint form and guidance on who can complain to the Certification Officer (CO), what you can complain about and how to complain.

This guidance is for trade unions. If you want to complain about an employers’ association, contact the CO’s team:

Email: info@certoffice.org Telephone: 0330 109 3602

Who can complain to the CO

You can complain to the CO if you are a member of the trade union you want to complain about.

You can also complain to the CO if you were a member of the trade union at the time of the incident you are complaining about.

If your complaint is about the way a trade union has held an election, you may be able to complain if you are not a member of the union but have ‘sufficient interest’. For example, you may have been a candidate in an election for a general secretary without being a member of the union.

Anyone can complain about the way a trade union manages its financial affairs. See guidance on reporting financial irregularities.

Employees of trade unions and employers’ associations can also whistleblow to the CO.

You cannot complain to the CO if you have already made the same complaint to a court.

Anonymity

The CO will not reveal your identify if you contact them to discuss the possibility of complaining.

However, you cannot usually submit a complaint anonymously.

After you have made a complaint, the CO will normally reveal your identity:

  • to the trade union you have complained about
  • to anybody else they think needs to know (for example a person who has made the same or similar complaint or her legal advisers)
  • in any final decision issued by the CO and published on her website                                         
    In rare circumstances, the CO can choose to withhold your identity if you provide evidence that disclosing your identity might put you at risk (for example of violence or physical danger).

What you can complain to the CO about

A breach or threatened breach of trade union rules

The CO has powers to handle complaints about a breach or threatened breach of trade union rules on:

  • the constitution of an executive committee or any decision-making meeting
  • the procedure for conducting any executive committee or any decision-making meeting
  • appointing or electing any officers to any role in the trade union
  • removing officers from their role in the trade union
  • disciplinary proceedings against union members (including expulsion)
  • balloting members on any issues other than industrial action

The CO also has powers to handle complaints about a breach of legal requirements for:

  • electing the general secretary, president and members of a trade union’s executive
  • producing a Membership Audit Certificate
  • the administration and use of political funds
  • members’ right of access to the union’s accounting records
  • mergers with another union
  • ensuring that certain types of offenders do not hold positions in the union
  • the union’s financial affairs

The CO does not have powers to handle complaints about the services provided by a union, such as individual representation.

If the CO cannot handle your complaint

You may be able to resolve your complaint by talking to your union. If that fails, you may be able to get free, confidential advice from the Advisory, Conciliation and Abritration Service (Acas), Citizens Advice or a local law centre.

Get advice on the Acas website.

Get advice on the Citizens Advice website.

Find your local law centre on the Law Centres Network website.

Time limits for complaints

The time limit for making a breach or threatened breach of trade union rules complaint is 6 months from the date of the alleged or threatened breach.

If you have used the union’s internal complaints procedure, the time limit is 6 months from the date that procedure concludes.

If you have used the union’s internal complaints procedure and this has not concluded within 12 months, you have a further 6 months to take your complaint to the CO.

If your complaint concerns a trade union election for a member of the executive, the president, the general secretary or for any position by virtue of which a person is a member of the executive, the time limit is a year from the date the union announces the election results.

If your complaint concerns the balloting on a political resolution, the time limit is a year from the date the union announces the ballot results. You must be a member or have been at the time the ballot was held.

If your complaint concerns a merger, the time limit is 6 weeks from the date the application to register the merger has been sent to the CO.  Only members of the transferring union can make a complaint.

If you are attempting to resolve your complaint with the union either informally or formally, you should be mindful of the time limit.

You can submit a complaint to the CO while you try to resolve your complaint with the union. However, the CO may refuse to accept a complaint if you have not already tried to resolve it with the union.

What you need to provide

To make a complaint, you will need to provide:

  • the name of the trade union you are complaining about
  • details of your membership
  • the name of the branch or section of the union where you are/were a member
  • the date the trade union breached a union rule or legal requirement
  • a summary of how the union breached or threatened to breach the rule or legal requirement
  • evidence that supports your allegation that the union breached or threatened to breach a rule
  • evidence that you have tried to resolve your complaint with the union (for example documents or an email showing that you set out your complaint to the trade union)
  • an explanation of how you complained to the union and what the outcome was, or when you expect the outcome (for example responses to your complaint)

If your complaint is about a breach of union rules, you will also need to explain which rule has been breached and provide a copy of that rule. 

How to complain

Download the CO complaints form and fill in all fields.

Complaint form (PDF, 630 KB, 5 pages)

Email the completed form to  info@certoffice.org 

Your email should include:

  • the completed complaints form
  • your supporting evidence
  • the relevant rules

You can also email or telephone the CO team if you need help filling in the form.

Email: info@certoffice.org

Telephone: 0330 109 3602

After you apply

Someone from the CO’s office will contact you shortly after receiving your application.

The CO aims to make a decision on your complaint within 6 months, but this will depend on the complexity of the case.

The CO’s team will assess whether your complaint falls within the CO’s powers, is within the time limits and whether a rule can have been broken in the way you have described.  

They will contact you to discuss your complaint and agree the complaint wording. They may ask you for additional information to support your complaint.

If your complaint is accepted:

  • the CO’s team will send the complaint to the trade union for comment
  • you will have the opportunity to reply to the union’s response
  • the CO will decide how to proceed with your complaint

If your complaint is not accepted, the CO’s team will notify you and close your case file.

Reasons a complaint might not be accepted include:

  • your complaint does not fall within the CO’s powers
  • your complaint has not been received within the time limit
  • the rule or requirement cannot have been breached in the way you describe

Possible outcomes once your complaint is accepted

The CO will give you and the union the opportunity to present your case at an online hearing.

You and the union can agree to ask the CO to decide on your complaint without a hearing. However, the CO may decide that a hearing is still necessary.

The CO can strike out an application, part of an application or a response at any stage.

The CO will decide whether to uphold your complaint. If she does, she will make a declaration that the union has breached its rules or legal requirements.

She will also make an enforcement order that the union rectifies the breach, unless she thinks that it is inappropriate to do so.  The CO may also impose a financial penalty for every breach she has identified.

The CO has no power to award costs to a complainant or the trade union.

Financial penalties

The CO will only impose a financial penalty when she believes it is proportionate to do so, and she will always explain why she is imposing the penalty. 

The CO takes 4 steps to decide whether to impose a financial penalty:

  1. She sends her decision about a breach to the trade union and complainant and explains why she intends to impose a financial penalty
  2. She invites the trade union (and sometimes the complainant) to make a written representation
  3. She considers written representations and any requests from the trade union to make an oral representation (there is no automatic right to an oral representation, but the CO usually accepts a request for one)
  4. She decides whether to impose a penalty and the size of the penalty

If the CO decides to issue a financial penalty order, the order explains the amount, how to pay it and the deadline for payment.

The CO can also make the financial penalty order conditional. This means the trade union must pay the penalty unless it takes specific actions set out in the penalty order to rectify the breach. For example, the CO may tell the trade union to give a member access to accounting records or hold a new ballot by a specific date.

The CO will check whether the trade union has met the conditions she has set and make a decision whether to:

  • withdraw the financial penalty, if the trade union has met the conditions
  • impose the full financial penalty, if the trade union has not met the conditions
  • reduce the financial penalty, if the trade union has partially met the conditions

The CO can recover financial penalties as a civil debt on the order of a court in England, Wales and Scotland.

All funds raised through financial penalties will be paid into the government’s consolidated fund. They will not be used to supplement the CO’s budget.

Minimum and maximum financial penalties

The CO has the flexibility to decide penalty amounts within set limits.

The minimum penalty is £200.

The maximum penalty is £20,000 if a trade union has failed to comply with legal requirements for:

  • preventing certain types of offenders from holding positions in the union
  • holding elections for senior officers and members of the executive
  • the administration and use of political funds
  • ballots on political resolutions
  • providing information to members about contributing to a political fund

The maximum penalty is £10,000 if a trade union has failed to comply with legal requirements for registering its members.

The maximum penalty is £5,000 if a trade union has failed to comply with legal requirements for:

  • giving members access to its accounting records
  • providing details of industrial action or political expenditure in its annual return
  • following its own rules on certain matters
  • responding to the CO’s investigatory requirements

The maximum penalty is £1,000 if an individual has not complied with directions made under the CO’s investigatory requirements, regardless of the size of the trade union.

When making a decision, the CO will consider factors that aggravate or mitigate the seriousness of, or culpability for, a breach.

Examples of aggravating factors are:

  • the breach had a significant impact on an individual or the trade union
  • the trade union has failed to comply in a similar way in the past
  • the trade union has intentionally failed to comply with legal requirements
  • evidence of deliberate malpractice or deliberate mal-administration
  • the trade union has not appropriately handled a member’s complaint

Examples of mitigating factors are:

  • the trade union promptly acknowledges that there has been a genuine administrative error or oversight
  • the trade union promptly admits it has breached a requirement and tries to rectify it
  • there is evidence that this is the first time the trade union has breached a requirement
  • the trade union has taken steps to reduce the impact of the breach and to reduce the likelihood of a breach occurring again
  • the trade union has promptly and effectively addressed a member’s complaint

Appeals

You can appeal a decision of the CO (including the decision to impose a financial penalty) to the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

Read relevant legislation

The government website legislation.gov.uk sets out the law relating to the role of the Certification Officer (the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992).

Visit the site to find out more about what the law says on:
* the right to complain to the CO about a union rule breach

Published 28 February 2024