UNISON still hasn’t properly completed its general election expense return

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UNISON still hasn’t properly completed its general election expense return

By Mark Pack | Tue 15th March 2011 - 12:56 pm

We reported back in December how UNISON was facing a fine for breaking election law. The trade union had completely failed to submit details of their general election expenditure within the legal deadline.

UNISON has now submitted its spending declaration several months late, but in a quirky twist of the law has not yet been fined by the Electoral Commission – because its return is still missing the signature of the ‘responsible person’. Assuming UNISON manage to get the piece of paper finally signed before 5 May (six months after the 5 November deadline), the fine required by law is £1,000.

Given how often UNISON calls for employers to stick to the letter of the law, its own failure to obey the law is not exactly the union’s finest hour.

UPDATE: In the end, Unison did meet the 5 May date and so was fined £1,000.