Public and Commercial Services Union

Regulations for the conduct of elections at 2008 annual delegate conference. Conference form ADC/04/08

General

1. The following regulations have been agreed by the national executive committee (NEC) in consultation with the member trustees, in accordance with Supplementary Rule (SR) 6.31. These regulations shall govern the conduct of elections at the 2008 annual delegate conference (ADC) and shall be binding on all members.

2. These regulations shall be circulated to all branches, and published on the PCS website.

Nominations

3. Nominations may only be submitted by branches, except that nominations for distinguished life membership may be made only by the NEC. Branch nominations may only be made following agreement by a properly constituted branch general meeting. Exceptionally the NEC can give prior agreement, that because of the scattered location of members, such a meeting is impracticable in accordance with SR4.4 . The consent of each nominee to stand must be obtained. The general secretary shall sign nominations for distinguished life membership, made by the NEC.

4. SR6.24 requires that no NEC member shall be eligible for election to the conference elected parts of the PCS delegations to the TUC, TUC Women’s Conference, TUC Youth Conference, Scottish TUC, Scottish TUC Women’s Conference, Scottish TUC Youth Conference, Wales TUC, Wales TUC Women’s Conference and Wales TUC Youth Conference

5. SR10.11 requires that no NEC member shall be eligible for election to the National Appeals Committee. Therefore, nominations for the ADC elections to these posts shall not be accepted for members who, at the time the nomination is made, are members of the NEC.

6. SR6.20 states that members elected to the National Standing Orders Committee (NSOC) shall serve for four years. The intention is that three members are elected in one election and two members elected in one election and that the elections take place every two years. As a result of resignations the election cycle has become out of synch so that there are four vacancies to be filled in 2008. To regularise the election cycle, in 2008 the three highest polling candidates shall be elected for 4 years and the fourth highest polling candidate shall be elected for 2 years.

7. Nominations shall only be valid if submitted on the official nomination form (sent to branch secretaries with these regulations). Completed forms must be received by the General Secretary c/o Theresa Busby, PCS 160 Falcon Road London SW11 2LN by no later than 5.00pm on Thursday 6 March 2008. Nominations received after this date and time shall not be accepted. Faxed nomination forms shall be accepted if received on 020 7801 2852 by the above deadline.

8. To meet TUC requirements, members who shall be more than 25 years of age at the time of the 2008 ADC shall not be eligible for election to the TUC Youth Conference. Nominations for members exceeding this age limit shall therefore not be accepted.

9. The maximum number of candidates who may be nominated by any branch for each election is limited to the number to be elected in that election. An excess of nominations for an election shall invalidate the nominations so far as that particular election is concerned. Any alterations or deletions to nomination forms must be authenticated by the signatures of the branch chairperson and secretary (or, if either is absent, by another branch officer).

10. Branches should provide each member nominated by them with a copy of the ADC elections nomination acceptance form (sent to branch secretaries with these regulations) and a copy of these regulations.

11. A branch nomination shall be a promise of the branch's vote; it may only be changed by a specially convened branch general meeting, and any change shall be notified to the general secretary before the ADC.

12. If there are insufficient nominations for any position, nominations for the unfilled positions shall be called for from the floor of Conference, and a vote shall be taken. If any position remains unfilled, the NEC may fill it.

13. SR6.32 requires that the general secretary shall satisfy himself that the nomination rules have been complied with, and that the consent of each nominee has been given. The general secretary shall refer any case of doubt to the member trustees for decision.

Acceptance of nominations

14. Candidates must indicate in writing that they are willing to stand, and this must be received by the General Secretary c/o Theresa Busby, PCS 160 Falcon Road London SW11 2LN by no later than 5.00pm on Thursday 13 March 2008.

Acceptances must be signed. Faxes shall be accepted if received on 020 7801 2852 by the same deadline. PCS headquarters (Membership Balloting and Events Division) shall inform nominees about each post for which they have been nominated.

A copy of the official acceptance form and the regulations governing election addresses shall be enclosed with that correspondence. If written notification is not received by the due date it shall be assumed that the nominee is not willing to stand and their name shall not be included in the list of candidates.

Election statements

15. Candidates may submit an election statement for each post for which they are standing. These must also be received by the General Secretary c/o Theresa Busby, PCS 160 Falcon Road London SW11 2LN by no later than 5.00pm on Thursday 13 March 2008. Faxed statements shall not be accepted.

Candidates standing for more than one post who wish to use the same statement for each post must clearly state that this is the case. Candidates submitting a different statement for each of the posts they are standing for must clearly indicate which statement is for which post.

If a candidate wishes to submit an election statement the following points will apply:

(a) Election statements must be provided in typescript and must be signed by the candidate. The statement must be received by the General Secretary c/o Theresa Busby, PCS 160 Falcon Road, London SW11 2LN by no later than 5.00pm on Thursday 13 March 2008; and

(b) A copy of the statement must also be provided as an attachment in Microsoft Word format to an e-mail to janet.woods@pcs.org.uk or on a disc or CD ROM in the same format.

An electronic version of the statement must be provided to minimise the possibility of proof reading errors and to ensure that PCS can comply with legal requirements. The electronic version must be received by no later than 5.00pm on Thursday 13 March 2008.

Please note that faxed copies of statements shall not be accepted.

16. Each candidate statement must not exceed 400 words (including biographical information) in length. If this limit is exceeded, the first 400 words only of the statement, shall be printed and distributed.

The completed “candidate acceptance and profile form” (ADC 3/08 enables each nominee to provide a factual statement of their surname, forename(s), gender, branch, employer and group. This information will be printed in addition to any election statement submitted and will not count towards the 400 words limit.

17. So far as is reasonably practicable, the same method of producing copies shall be applied to all election statements in such a way as to ensure that no candidate may gain advantage over another. The ‘candidates checklist’ includes guidelines on the acceptable format.

The General Secretary shall have the right to refuse to have printed or published any part of a candidate’s statement which in his opinion, after taking legal advice, may be libellous or provide grounds for any legal proceedings against the union or any of its officers, agents or printers.

Voting

19. Voting shall be by branch ballot at 2008 ADC. The member trustees shall supervise the elections and give the president a certified statement of the results.

Limitations

20. After the counting of votes, the limitations required by SR6.20, SR6.25 (b), SR7.34 and SR10.11 shall be applied, as appropriate, in the elections for the Standing Orders Committee, National Appeals Committee and the TUC, Scottish TUC and Wales TUC delegations listed in SR6.24. Employer limitations do not apply to youth conferences.

Complaints

21. Any complaint as to an alleged breach of the PCS rules in respect of the conduct of elections at 2008 ADC shall be made in writing to the Member Trustees, c/o Theresa Busby, PCS 160 Falcon Road, London SW11 2LN. Any complaint as to the validity of a nomination shall be made not later than Wednesday 7 May 2008.

If the member trustees consider that the rules have been breached they shall, after consulting the president, decide what action if any should be taken, including whether the election should be declared void or any candidate disqualified. The member trustees' decision shall be final and binding on all members. The general secretary shall publish the decision, together with the reason for it, to branches.