Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
FDA (trade union)
British trade union for civil servants From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
The FDA is the only trade union that operates in the administrations of all four nations of the United Kingdom and focuses exclusively on issues of managers and professionals in the civil service.[2] The membership ranges from Higher Executive Officers to Permanent Secretaries.[3]
Since its formation in 1919, the union has grown to more than 24,000 members.[4]
Remove ads
Members, structure and affiliations
Summarize
Perspective
Members
Members of the FDA work across 200 government departments, agencies and arms-length-bodies in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and overseas.[5]
Employers represented by the FDA include: HMRC, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Crown Prosecution Service, Department for Work and Pensions, Scottish Government, Government Legal Department, Welsh Government, culture including libraries, museums and more.[2]
Its members include policy advisers, middle and senior managers, tax inspectors, economists, lawyers, prosecutors, school inspectors, diplomats, accountants, fast streamers and senior civil servants.[2]
In 2002, MI6 partnered with the FDA to provide workplace support, guidance and legal advice to staff whilst maintaining their anonymity. While MI6 staff did not become full union members, the arrangement provided them with support in addressing workplace grievances and accessing legal advice, including cases taken to employment tribunals.[6]
In 2015, the union expanded its membership base by opening up membership to HEOs, SEOs and their equivalent grades for the first time.[2]
Membership structure and affiliations
Its federal structure means that some sections of the union operate under separate branding. Three parts of the union have distinctive institutional features. Senior staff at HM Revenue and Customs join the Association of Revenue and Customs (ARC) which is also a certified trade union as well as a section of FDA. Managers in the NHS join Managers in Partnership (MiP), a joint venture with Unison of which MiP members are also members.[7] Members in middle management (Higher Executive Officer and Senior Executive Officers) join Keystone.[8]
The FDA is an affiliate of the Trades Union Congress, the Scottish Trades Union Congress, the Wales TUC and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions but is not affiliated to the Labour Party or any other political party.[9] The FDA is also affiliated to Public Services International.[10]
Remove ads
History
Despite often being known, particularly in the British press, as the "First Division Association",[11] the legal name is "FDA".
The union was formerly known as the Association of First Division Civil Servants. The original name was chosen because it represented first division (the most senior) clerks, as opposed to the Second Division Association, which represented more junior clerks. Although the terms first and second division clerks were abolished in the 1920s, it proved impossible to agree on an alternative name, and the name remained until 2000 when, following a motion to the union's annual delegate conference, the official name became "FDA".[12]
It describes itself as "FDA - the union of choice for senior managers and professionals in public service".[9]
Remove ads
General Secretary
Dave Penman, formerly Deputy General Secretary, was elected unopposed as General Secretary in May 2012 [13] and took up office from July 2012.
His immediate predecessors were Jonathan Baume (1997-2012) (who had previously been Assistant General Secretary and Deputy General Secretary), Elizabeth Symons[14] (1989–96) and John Ward (1980–88). The first full-time General Secretary was Norman Ellis, appointed in 1974.[15]
In 1996, the then Labour Party leader Tony Blair was criticised after he nominated the outgoing FDA General Secretary Liz Symons for a peerage.[14]
See also
Notes
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads