| Founded | 1918 |
|---|---|
| Members | 19,000+ |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Affiliation | TUC, STUC, ICTU, Wales TUC, PSI |
| Key people | Jonathan Baume, general secretary |
| Office location | Waterloo, London, England |
| Website | www.fda.org.uk |
The FDA, formerly The Association of First Division Civil Servants, and sometimes known as the First Division Association, is a trade union for senior civil servants and public service professionals in the United Kingdom, founded in 1918.[1]
Its over 19,000 members include Whitehall policy advisers and senior managers, tax inspectors, economists and statisticians, government-employed lawyers, crown prosecutors, procurators fiscal, schools inspectors, diplomats, senior national museum staff, senior civil servants, accountants and National Health Service (NHS) managers.[2]
The organisation was founded as the Association of First Division Civil Servants, before changing name to FDA in 2000.
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Its federal structure means that some of its members do not join FDA directly, but rather an affiliated organisation. In particular, senior staff at HM Revenue and Customs apply to the Association of Revenue and Customs (ARC),[3] and management in the NHS join Managers in Partnership (MiP).[4]
The FDA is an affiliate of the Trades Union Congress, the Scottish Trades Union Congress, the Wales TUC and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions but is not affiliated to the Labour Party or any other political party.[2] The FDA is also affiliated to Public Services International.[5]
Despite often being known (particularly in the British press) as the "First Division Association",[6] the legal name is "FDA". It describes itself as 'FDA - the union of choice for senior managers and professionals in public service'.[2]
The original name, 'The Association of First Division Civil Servants' was chosen because it represented first division clerks, as opposed to the Second Division Association, which represented more junior clerks. Although the terms first and second division clerks were abolished in the 1920s, it proved impossible to agree on an alternative name, and the name remained until 2000 when, following a motion to the union's annual delegate conference, the official name became "FDA".[1]
Jonathan Baume has been General Secretary since 1997 and was previously Assistant General Secretary and Deputy General Secretary.[7] The previous General Secretary (1989–96) was Elizabeth Symons[8] and the one before her was John Ward (1980–88). The first full time General Secretary was Norman Ellis who was appointed in 1974.[9]
In 1996, then Labour Party leader Tony Blair was criticised after he proposed outgoing FDA General Secretary Liz Symons for a peerage.[8]
At the 2006 TUC Conference, Baume was heckled when he spoke against support for the Trade Union Freedom Bill.[10]
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