A shorter meeting than anticipated as we were supposed to be approving the NEC election procedures for 2021/2023 for submission to the full NEC of 10/12/20.
However,
the replacement (same) body for the electoral reform society (ERS), - CES advised that the timescales were insufficient and they
wouldn’t approve as they stood
so we now have a 1 item D&O meeting on this
subject in advance of the NEC.
Under the learning and organising report we noted that current branch Activists currently totals 15283.
Accessible online training for H&S Reps during the pandemic has now totalled 30 new Reps with further courses scheduled now and in January.
Recruitment and Organisation - there were big numbers after lockdown but the figures had levelled out.
Under the RMS report it was noted that Merlin had been approved as the organisation to update the current system.
An
update report was received on the UNISON CaseWeb system which generated
a fair few questions including why this should be
mandatory for all but mainly small
branches where there was an annual cost associated. It was stated that to make this free would cost £700,000. An NEC member stated that if this system was mandatory it should be free.
Further
concerns were raised regarding being unable to transfer information
from existing systems to the new. A decision would be taken later whether we approve or not.
The data protection update contained concerns that it’s not always possible to fully comply with Subject Access Requests (SARs).
John Jones, NEC member Water, Environment and Transport outlined a case he was dealing with as a North West England based branch when the SAR was a member in the North East Scotland contact centre where there was only 1 Rep who is on long term sick leave and the employer was not Trade Union friendly.
An update report was given on the government’s plans to cease the Union Learning Fund as of 31/03/21.
Branches under Regional Supervision - there was 1 in the North West.
A number of Honorary Life memberships were approved including Dave Prentis, General Secretary and Bernie Gallagher former NEC member of many years from the North West.
Under AOB - an NEC member from North West raised concerns that the Black members conference was not being held as a decision making conference. It was essential that we used every opportunity to maintain lay democracy throughout this period.
