Of course there are also issues with what you can expect from your Trade Union , for example when a performer has an issue with their provider, be it practice owner or corporate, the BDA provide arbitration not representation, as both parties may indeed be members. Some of the enhanced services recently have included assistance with tendering, where the BDA charged a fee for assisting a member tender for an NHS contract, they did this on a first come basis where anyone else competing in the same tender could not purchase this additional support even if they too were a BDA member. These represent further dichotomies on what are business services and what are Trade Union roles.

The funding of the Trade Union activity is also complex, the BDA supply venues for meetings and assist in some costs such as secretariat support and paper productions for the effective working of the Committees. The sessional payments for Union activity are paid from the British Dental Guild and collected from Local Dental Committees and not directly from the BDA at all. The BDA have no “fighting fund” for any industrial action if in the unlikely event that was ever a consequence of the Trade Union activities.

With so many issues surrounding the core Trade Union activity, is now the time to re-examine who should carry out that duty, before the BDA change its’ constitution to decide if that responsibility is resting in the correct location ?

Can a company and trade union live together or should the divorce lawyers be put on notice?

Eddie Crouch