What is the best union for remote admin workers?

Posted by ItsGoodToChalk@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 8 comments

I work for a company with headquarters in the USA, but am employed by their UK-subsidiary. Lately it is becoming more apparent they are going to try enforce negative USA-work culture on our UK and wider European teams. As I think I will be their main target in the coming months, I want to cover myself and join a union, in case I need them. I am quite well-versed on general UK-employment law (and my rights), and I have been with the company just over 2.5 years, but I feel extra protection and support will not hurt. I would not be surprised if they will pull some stuff they get away with under USA-law (putting it broadly - I know different states have different laws), but would be illegal or highly questionable in the UK. Which union would be best for admin (finance) workers? I've tried to Google, and I am currently leaning towards Unite.

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8 Comments

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FelisCantabrigiensis@reddit

You can also consider Prospect - they do a lot of office workers of all types and administrative/technical roles. Ensure that the Americans do not breach UK employment law, which they are prone to do. Holiday cannot be reduced below legal minimum, rest periods between work periods cannot be reduced below legal minimum, notice (or pay in lieu) and redundancy pay must be given if a role is made redundant, person cannot be made redundant and another hired in the same role within 6 months, etc. But make sure there is not any way you can be claimed to be engaging in misconduct. Follow all company rules (that are legal), or someone malicious will try a "fired due to misconduct" on you if they want to get rid of you.

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ItsGoodToChalk@reddit (OP)

They've done nothing massive yet, but one thing they did do was expecting last minute extensive unpaid overtime. Their attitude was 'It's for the business, so you should be happy to.'. It was unnecessary last minute work which could have easily waited until normal UK business hours the next day. They are shocked that my team manager has told them she will not be available at all during her PTO in January - she was forced to meetings the last time. She leaves behind a capable team of team leaders to cover her absence.

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FelisCantabrigiensis@reddit

... did that take your team manager under legal minimum holiday time for the year? You can suggest to her that she check if it did.

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ItsGoodToChalk@reddit (OP)

Good point, will pass it on.

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FelisCantabrigiensis@reddit

Don't let the bastards get you down!

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ItsGoodToChalk@reddit (OP)

And thank you for the recommendation!

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