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4 March '03 - Minutes
for the 27th meeting of the EMAG committee
Held at: Small Mall
Room, RAC Clubhouse
Apologies: Rodney
Allen (committee), Sir Jeremy Lever, Christopher Poulton, Chris Canaghan (members)
Guests: Linda Gregory (of UNIFI), John Newman, Andrew Pike, Mike Neal,
Oliver Parsons (members)
1. Treasurer's report:
The monthly report had been circulated to the committee in advance and was
signed by all committee members present. At the end of March EMAG will have
circa £40,000 unfettered. There are several known large expenditure
items in the next three months.
2. EC Court options:
Leslie Seymour described his preliminary findings. Issues of Human Rights
can, apparently, be considered without prior exploration of domestic avenues.
LS was given budgetary approval to proceed with EC legal investigation of
available avenues. PB expressed committee's thanks to LS for his extensive,
ongoing research.
3. Linda Gregory of UNIFI,
the union for banking and building society employees, made a presentation
about her nine year fight for pension rights in the European Court for part-time
staff members. This eventually achieved a successful resolution, only after
exhausting all UK avenues and eventually being referred by the H of L to the
European Courts of Justice. The case was heard in Luxembourg on 20th April
1999 and, after one year, the Advocate General handed down his interim opinion
which was subsequently ratified by the court. Ms Gregory ended with a summary
of lessons learned by her union, including the recommendation that implementation
of compensation is a nightmare best addressed by independent third party administrators.
4. CS described progress
on the current report he has been commissioned by the committee to prepare.
Burgess Hodgson will quantify and explain the solid bedrock of exactly how
much ELAS policyholders can irrefutably claim as attribute to regulatory failure,
as the basis for the claim for compensation against the Government.
5. AH gave an update on
his major submission to the Penrose Inquiry. AH to draft letters to John Tiner,
re his letter of Jan 12th and to Sir Philip Otton re the disastrous performance
of the Society against Ernst & Young's strike-out action.
6. PB described the plans
for the imminent press briefing on the two EMAG submissions to the Penrose
Inquiry. Also, progress on the forthcoming BBC TV Money Programme, due for
transmission on March 27th.
7. John Newman presented
a paper summarising EMAG's governance reform proposals developed last year
and contrasted them with the proposals which will soon be circulated by the
Board of ELAS [with the AGM papers presumably]. The Board proposes to preserve
the requirement that 10% of the membership (a number unknown for the last
20 months) to call an EGM. In addition the number required to put a resolution
at an EGM remains unchanged. This procedure and the unreformed voting rights
of each member leads to the self-perpetuating oligarchy. The election of directors
is determined by the power of the proxy and is intrinsically undemocratic.
The Committee noted that this position ignored and defied the EMAG co-ordinated
petition at the last ELAS AGM from 17,000 members. It was agreed to point
this out to the Board and ask for resolutions to be placed on the EGM papers
suggesting our changes even if the Board would vote against them.
8. There was a discussion
of prospective candidates for the board of ELAS at the May 28th AGM. Regrettably,
AH, PB and CS are not eligible under existing rules.
9. AOB: Andrew
Pike proposed terms from his practice Morgan Cole (solicitors) for preparing
explicit nominated briefs for counsel, as a stand-alone opinion in publishable
form. Committee approved the expenditure. Rodney Allen was nominated as committee
member responsible.
Tom Lake relinquished
role of membership secretary Colin Slater to take over the duties.
CS proposed a vote of
thanks to AH for exceptional efforts in the Penrose second submission and,
as a gesture, an honorairium to express the committee's appreciation. Approved.
Next meeting Wed 9th April
6.45pm for 7.00pm at the RAC Clubhouse, Pall Mall, London. Any EMAG member
wishing to attend should contact Paul Braithwaite in advance at: paulbraithwaite@yahoo.com
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