The composition of the Northern Ireland Police Service Board may face a legal challenge from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Union leaders are "outraged" at the failure of the Northern Ireland Office to appoint any of its nominees to the board, despite strong congress backing for the reform package.
The ICTU's assistant general secretary, Mr Peter Bunting, said there was a strong demand within the movement for a judicial review of the appointment process, especially as the Patten Report specifically recommended trade union representation on the police board. A decision is due at the ICTU's local executive meeting next month.
Relations between the ICTU and the Northern Ireland Office have been poor for some time. The general secretary of congress, Mr Dave Begg, a former chief executive of Concern, told an international conference of NGOs in Oxford this month that negotiating with the NIO was like dealing with people on a "separate planet".
Citing the dispute over the police board, he said the ICTU had come out in full support of the new structures and recommended full participation in them. "This was quite a difficult policy decision because, as you will understand, the trade union movement is made up of people from both sides of the community. Having taken this difficult policy, we were extremely disappointed to find our nominees for participation in the police boards were all rejected."
A spokeswoman for the NIO said the junior minister responsible for policing, Ms Jane Kennedy, had met senior ICTU members on December 4th. There had been "a full exchange and an explanation at length was given on the process by Ms Kennedy. Selection for the independent members of the board is on merit."
Mr Bunting described the meeting with Ms Kennedy as "robust". The ICTU had sent in nominations when the first request for applications was made.
"If they felt our nominees were not up to scratch they should have told us." Other bodies had been asked to send in more applications.
Mr Bunting said the ICTU was unique in being able to provide candidates from working-class communities on both sides of the sectarian divide, where policing was most problematic.
The ICTU has been seeking a meeting with the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, on this and other issues. So far no date has been agreed. Mr Bunting said he was "quite outraged that we should be treated in such a shabby fashion by members of a government who consider themselves trade unionists or friends of trade unions."
The police board has 17 members. Ten are nominees of the main political parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly, apart from Sinn FΘin, which is boycotting the board. The chairman is Prof Desmond Rea. The other independent members are Viscount Brookeborough, Mr Brian Dougherty, Mr Barry Gilligan, Mr Tom Kelly, Ms Pauline McCabe, Ms Rosaleen Moore and Ms Suneil Sharma.