Sectors

Amicus was primarily a sector-based union. The industrial sectors were responsible for electing the majority of National Executive Committee members, and had the right to submit the majority of motions to the Policy and Rules Conferences. The remainder of NEC positions were regional and women's seats.

Regions

Amicus had 12 regions – Scotland, Wales, and the island of Ireland, together with nine English regions corresponding to the British government's then regional development agencies. Each region had a Regional Council which met every two months and was composed of about 35 delegates, elected by regional Sector, Women's, Equalities and Branch Conferences.

An Amicus region typically contained several hundred branches, each of which represent a smaller group of members, running local campaigns on their behalf and providing a means for members to socialise with one another and increase their involvement in Amicus and the wider union movement. Nationally, there were about 1900 branches. Branches were typically organised on a workplace, geographical or sectoral basis, and varied in size from a few dozen to several thousand members. One reason for the wide variation in branch size and type was that, during the numerous union mergers which culminated in the formation of Amicus, branches were often not forced to merge. For this reason many branches were still based on the structures that existed in long-disappeared unions such as TASS. Some branches were inactive, for example because the workplace they represented no longer exists. In 2005, Amicus began a consultation on reorganisation of branches, primarily intended to close inactive branches or merge them with neighbouring ones which are more active. Not surprisingly this reorganisation was of some concern to branch activists, and prompted a number of neighbouring branches to voluntarily merge in order to pre-empt any action from the centre. Other branches, for example those in the voluntary sector, were by their nature small, and made representations to the NEC and the General Secretary in which they pointed out that a small branch is not necessarily an inactive one. As of October 2006 the results of the branch consultation had not been published.

Elections and local control

The sectoral nature of Amicus contrasts with MSF where branches and regions held the majority of control and where branches were entitled to directly elect delegates to national policy and rules conferences. In Amicus, all conference delegates must be elected by a National Sector, Women's or Equalities Conference or a Regional Branch Conference.

In general, committees of the union from branch level upwards must be composed of lay members elected by the group of members they represent, as per MSF custom and practice. A notable exception is for the secretary of a regional or national committee, who is usually a Full-Time Officer employed by the union. However, within the AEEU, branches were often chaired by Officers.

In the 2002 General Secretary election, several officials of the AEEU section admitted to double-voting at different branches after a The Guardian exposure of the practice.^[3] In June 2002, The AEEU section London and south-east regional secretary, Roger Maskell, resigned following complaints by candidate Derek Simpson of tampering of computer voting records.^[4][5] Roger Maskell subsequently started a constructive dismissal action at an employment tribunal. In a legal statement the union's head of information systems said he was instructed by a senior official to amend voting software to allow 730,000 members to vote rather than the correct figure of 618,000, by including former members who had left the union in the preceding two years.^[6]

A rule change in 2005 provided for the establishment of Area Activist Quarterlies (also known as Area Committees) consisting of workplace representatives and branch officers from a given geographical area, to be smaller than the existing Regions. These resemble the AEEU's District Committees. The first Quarterlies took place in April 2006, and will be convened four times per year. The primary purpose of the Quarterlies is to allow local activists to share information on local issues such as redundancies and industrial disputes, and co-ordinate local campaigns.

Conferences and committees

As a general rule any candidate for a position on a committee of the union also had to be a workplace representative, in order to retain the connection with workplaces. However, retired members could hold branch positions; until a rule change in 2005, retired members wishing to hold a position other than Branch Secretary needed the NEC's consent. A further exception was made for the equalities committees, where a committee member was expected to be in employment but did not need to be a representative.

Amicus conferences are organised on a two-yearly cycle with national Policy Conferences taking place in odd-numbered years, and sectoral, national equality and regional branch conferences being held in the intervening years. This differs with MSF and AEEU arrangements where national conferences took place on an annual basis. Similarly, Regional Councils meet every two months as opposed to monthly under MSF.

Due to the two-yearly cycle, Amicus does not have a President, because legislation requires the position to be elected annually – either by delegates to annual conference, or the entire membership. In view of the cost of a national postal ballot, the Chair of the NEC was given the role of chairing the 2005 Policy and Rules Conferences.

The only Rules Conference of Amicus took place in 2005. The next Rules Conference was planned to take place in 2009, but following the merger with the T+G it is now likely to take place in 2010, as part of the wider Unite union.