JOE KIRBY OBITUARY

29 RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 ::november/december2022 :: RMTnews Joe Kirby joined the union’s Offshore Energy branch in 2011 as a steward working with Entier on a drilling unit in the offshore sector. He quickly engaged in union activities and became a Health and Safety representative in 2012. Around the same time the rig he was working on was caught up in the massive gas release at the Total installation, the Elgin/Franklin field. Joe was a critical source of information at that time and enabled the union to challenge the operator around the event. Later, Joe participated in the ‘Step Change in Safety’ Health & Safety forum. In 2014, Joe also attended as a delegate to the Biennial Offshore Grades Conference and was a delegate at the TUC in 2015. His work then took him to Shetland, working on a floating accommodation unit supporting the work at the Shetland gas plant. From there he got the opportunity to be part of the crew for a new offshore installation being constructed in South Korea, the Glen Lyon.  Joe spent around a year in Korea during the construction phase of the Glen Lyon (a floating production storage and offloading unit) and was part of the team during the sail to the site West of Shetland via Africa and Norway. Joe worked on the installation for a few years as part of the Catering Team employed by Aramark. He was once again elected as the workforce Health & Safety rep where he played a key role, and he was a well- respected member of the installation safety committee. With RMT Joe was elected as the RMT assistant branch secretary and later became the branch chair. He was an active and innovative member of the branch committee and was the architect of the branch App “Blowout” and regular contributor to the branch newsletter “Enough is Enough”. He was elected to the RMT National Executive Committee (NEC) and commenced his post on January 1, 2020, securing full-time release with his employer. Having spent a large proportion of his first 18-months in office participating in NEC meetings from home due to the pandemic, Joe was enthusiastic about a return to Unity House and seeing out the remainder of his term of office. Tragically that was not to be as Joe was sadly taken from us on June 7, 2022. Joe was passionate about everything he did, especially supporting Liverpool! With the union, some might say he was overly passionate at times, but that was the nature of the man. Whether you agreed with him or not you had to respect his commitment and unwavering support for the union and most importantly his constituency of offshore energy workers. Joe was a Dad and a loving partner to Catriona, a colleague and comrade to many in RMT. He was taken from us far too early and will be sadly missed.   We are required by the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (amended) to include the following declaration in this statement to all members. The wording is as prescribed by the Act. "A member who is concerned that some irregularity may be occurring, or have occurred, in the conduct of the financial affairs of the union may take steps with a view to investigating further, obtaining clarification and, if necessary, securing regularisation of that conduct. The member may raise any such concerns with such one or more of the following as it seems appropriate to raise it with: the officials of the union, the trustees of the property of the union, the auditor or auditors of the union, the Certification Officer (who is an independent officer appointed by the Secretary of State) and the police. Where a member believes that the financial affairs of the union have been or are being conducted in breach of the law or in breach of rules of the union and contemplates bringing civil proceedings against the union or responsible officials or trustees, he should consider obtaining independent legal advice.” • We considered the incentives and opportunities that exist in the union, including the extent of management bias, which present a potential for irregularities and fraud to be perpetuated, and tailored our risk assessment accordingly. • Using our knowledge of the union, together with the discussions held with the union at the planning stage, we formed a conclusion on the risk of misstatement due to irregularities including fraud and tailored our procedures according to this risk assessment. The key procedures we undertook to detect irregularities including fraud during the course of the audit included: • Identifying and testing journal entries and the overall accounting records, in particular those that were significant and unusual. • Reviewing the financial statement disclosures and determining whether accounting policies have been appropriately applied. • Reviewing and challenging the assumptions and judgements used by management in their significant accounting estimates, in particular in relation to valuations of both property assets and pension obligations. • Assessing the extent of compliance, or lack of, with the relevent laws and regulations. • Testing key revenue lines, in particular cut-off, for evidence of management bias. • Performing a physical verification of key assets • Obtaining third-party confirmation of material investment, bank and loan balances. • Documenting and verifying all significant related party balances and transactions. • Reviewing documentation such as minutes of the meetings of the National Executive Committee and confirmation fron solicitors for discussions of irregularities including fraud. Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that we may not have detected some material misstatements in the financial statements even though we have properly planned and performed our audit in accordance with auditing standards. The primary responsibility for the prevention and detection of irregularities and fraud rests with those charged with governance of the Union. A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council's website at https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report. USE OF OUR REPORT This report is made solely to the Union's members, as a body. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Union's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Union and the Union's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed. HW FISHER LLP Chartered Accountants Statutory Auditor Acre House 11 - 15 William Road London NW1 3ER United Kingdom Date: 31 October 2022 JOE KIRBY OBITUARY RMT regional organiser Jake Molloy remembers Joe Kirby national executive committee member and offshore energy worker e