This was an in person and hybrid meeting. The Vice Presidents Kath Owen and Andrea Egan expressed concern about the late receipt of NEC papers and that no papers had been printed we hoped going forward this would be addressed with seven days notice in terms of receiving papers before meetings. There was a packed agenda and a balance would need to be struck between progressing the business of the meeting and allowing as many speakers as possible. We then moved to the obituaries. One obituary resulted in a ‘final message’ from a deceased UNISON member being read out by an NEC member. This message was to the effect that all the members of the NEC were as bad as each other: ‘you’re all a pack of bastards’. It is extraordinary that an NEC member would feel it appropriate to begin what was always likely to be a difficult and tense meeting, based on previous experience, with such a confrontational and inappropriate message.
There were some technical difficulties with the IT and all
those in the room at the UNISON centre were asked to log off teams to avoid audio
feedback being created. NEC members online reported that the audio was poor. At
least 20 minutes was lost at the start of the meeting because of this.
Christina Mcanea, General Secretary report
Christina referred to current disputes and that today was the first day of the industrial action ballot in local government for England and Wales. We're doing all we could to maximise turnout and to give access to the Warm's system (UNISON membership) to more people in the branch. New guidance and scripts would be going out imminently on how to do phone banks that was GDPR compliant. There was further consultation in terms of the NHS pay ballot in England and in Local Government in Scotland there was an improved offer with a 76% yes vote to accept.
There was a report of legal cases – one had been a victory
in terms of collective bargaining and inducements to break collective
agreements at the Supreme Court congratulations were given and it set a good
precedent for us.
The COP26 climate conference was referred to: Tony Wright as
Chair of PDCC (Policy Development and Campaigns Committee) NEC sub committee had
attended in Glasgow with Christina. A report was launched ‘Getting to net zero
in UK public services: The road to decarbonisation’. There was a one hour live
stream. But COP26 outcome generally way below what is needed. More action to be
planned.
2022 was the year of disabled members. We will need to look
at what we can do in all areas of the union on this.
The NEC was organising a ‘Fight for fairness’ rally open to
all activists, reps and members - the first step to building and organising and
listening to our reps - this will take place on Wednesday 15th December 2021 at
5:30 PM online, registration details would be out soon and activists were
encouraged to sign people up.
An NEC member refer to the recent decision of the Industrial
Action Committee of the NEC to increase strike pay to £50 a day from £25 and to
pay it from day 1 rather than day 4. A question was asked would this apply in
the current Local Government dispute where 375,000 members are being balloted and
that would be around £18 million for one day. It was understood that the Chair
of the Industrial Action Committee, Sandy Nicoll (who was not at the meeting
but on strike happily at the SOAS picket line) had said this would not apply to
the Local Government pay dispute. Sarah Littlewood, Vice Chair advised that the
decision had been taken at Industrial Action Committee to increase strike pay as
it had been a considerable number of years since any uplift. There were no
votes against the proposal on the Industrial Action Committee and only 2
abstentions - it was confirmed we wouldn’t apply the revised rate to the Local Government
pay dispute and this would be reported back to Local Government NJC (National
Joint Council). The delegate’s outrage (‘the union might be bankrupted’) was
easily rebutted by the Vice Chair.
An NEC member referred to the SOAS (School of Oriental and African
Studies) at the University of London picket line that morning before the NEC
where a number of NEC members had attended to show solidarity. SOAS UNISON plus
two other UNISON branches were taking strike action in addition to the action
taken by the UCU (University and College Union) union.
An NEC member referred to the 19th March 2022 UN day of
action against racism protests and asked that we should start publicising them perhaps
in a standalone email sent out to activists. In terms of the Fight for fairness
rally which is only two weeks away we should keep the date. A question was
asked about the format would there be questions in advance, would there be a Q
and A and what could we do to publicise this?
An NEC member mentioned the report ‘Misconduct in public
office’ (Peoples Covid inquiry) concerning the Government's mishandling of the COVID-19
crisis. UNISON had put its name to a letter in the Guardian newspaper. We
should be pushing that report.
An NEC member stated that in the indicative ballot for Industrial
action in her Local Government branch there been an uptick in responses when
information had dropped about the rate of inflation. The member was
disappointed however that proper information on how to deal with phone banking
had not yet been circulated.
In response Christina Mcanea, General Secretary stated that
for the Local Government pay dispute a script and advice was ready to go out
the following day. Ballot papers will be circulated to 370,000 members. It was
not Christina's understanding that strike pay from day one would be paid in the
Local Government pay dispute if there was a yes vote in the NJC ballot.
An Assistant General Secretary referred to the Fighting for
fairness rally on 15th of December and that early next week a personalised
invite would be sent to activists with a link to register for the event. We
were trying to get the interest of those who wanted to become more active in
the union. It was not just a case of look at the four people on the panel, great
as they may be as speakers. We wanted to make the event interactive with
members and it would be promoted on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It would
be a good way to end the year. Steve North, NEC member from the North West who was
involved in organising the event said this should be a good positive event
increasing communications with members.
Presidential team report
This was new and done to aid accountability and transparency of the Presidential team taking decisions made on behalf of the NEC in between meetings. There had been a positive meeting with the National Black Members Committee and a few future way of working was agreed going forward. On communications and publicity the Presidential team expected to have oversight and sign off of reports and minutes of relevant meetings for example the NEC. An anonymous and partial account of the meeting on 6th October 2021 had been released without the knowledge of the Presidential Team. Christina Mcanea, General Secretary stated that there is no standard practice of the Chair signing off minutes, we have professional corporate methods of communicating and journalistic standards and a corporate way of working. ‘I'm happy to discuss with the Presidential team but I will not be agreeing it today.’
A proposal was put forward regarding the six resolutions
carried by the NEC at the 6th October 2021 meeting in order to avoid risking a
delay to the resolutions being implemented. It was proposed that the Head of
the Legal department of UNISON, Adam Creme work with the General Secretary to
instruct Michael Forde QC to work with Lord Hendy QC to urgently endeavour to
resolve the differences that remain outstanding. Such a meeting would be normal
and routine legal practice to avoid the cost associated with having to go to
the High Court to get a definitive judgement. The NEC was confident the
resolutions were not unlawful as they were only clarifications on existing
rules. These resolutions were important as they go to the heart of to what
extent UNISON is a lay member led union or not.
Lord Hendy QC’s legal advice had confirmed all 6 to be lawful.
(This legal advice was provided pro bono – free of charge – to the Presidential
Team.) Christina Mcanea, General Secretary stated that she did not see the
point in this. It is not for the barrister's to backdown. I will not be
instructing the barristers to sit down in the next 7 days. Other suggestions were
1) We accept the advice of Lord Hendy QC and 2) we ask the General Secretary and
Presidential team to continue discussions and try and find a way forward or
else we will end up in court.
An NEC member representing Black members confirmed that the
meeting between the Presidential team and National Black members committee had
gone well.
An NEC member stated that the resolutions have not been
implemented and they needed to be. This proposal is an attempt to break the
deadlock. The NEC are the people who make the decisions in between National
Delegate Conference and the proposal was an attempt to do something about that.
Also unbalanced information had gone out after the last NEC meeting from
various quarters.
Kath Owen, Vice President stated that the two senior QCs
Forde and Hendy were about 95% in agreement. Forde QC was uncertain about the meaning of one of
those resolutions.
Christina Mcanea, General Secretary agreed we were 95% in
agreement. Resolution 6 is now not in contention and Resolution 2 there is an
issue in terms of the powers of the General Secretary and the Presidential team
and if it ends up going to court it ends up going to court.
Andrea Egan, Vice president said the two sets of legal
advice were quite close and it would be helpful if they could meet in a room.
Another NEC member asked again what was the motion? The Vice
Presidents confirmed it was asking Lord Hendy QC and Forde QC to get in the
room and talk, discussing interpretation of the resolutions. The proposal was
clear – that the General Secretary would work with the Head of Legal to
instruct Forde QC to work with Lord Hendy QC in the next seven days to urgently
endeavour to resolve the differences.
An NEC member raised an issue about access needs and
reasonable adjustments to people and suggested the motion should be circulated
in writing by email as we were approaching lunch. It was decided that the
motion would be circulated in writing by email and then we would take the
proposal after the lunch break.
On resumption, The Head of Legal services stated that you
are seeking to enact one of the resolutions - resolution 3 - by instructing me
to do something that would circumvent my role as Director of Legal services and
this would be a breach of my independence. I would say the same to Christina if
she instructed me to get specific legal advice. I do not see that getting the
two QCs in a room is the right way forward for our union and they would be
unlikely to agree given how far apart they are. To avoid external litigation I
would argue to pursue a route agreed between the Vice Presidents and the General
Secretary.
Andrea Egan, Vice President stated that the NEC proposal is
to avoid risking further delay and to unblock the blockage. We are not happy
with some of the motions presented to conferences recently. If the NEC passes
resolutions they are owned by the NEC. We would ask that be respected by
Officers and to move on. Asking the barristers is to me is a possible solution
there is not a huge difference between Forde and Hendy's views.
The vote then took place on the words circulated in the
email over lunch. The vote was as follows For 29, against 21, abstentions 3.
Christina Mcanaea, General Secretary said it was not a competent motion trying
to enact one of the motions which some considered ultra vires but I will agree
to discuss with the Director of Legal Services. The rule book interestingly
gives the NEC power under section D.2.11, D2.11.4 to bring or defend legal
proceedings of any type.
Service Group Executive election procedures were
agreed. The aim of the new procedures was to improve turn out and make the
experience as engaging of and for members as possible. Turnouts have been very
poor in the past often as low as 5 to 6%. Previous changes to the rules to tighten
them up and make campaigning more restricted had done nothing to improve
engagement or turnout and attempted to address problems of ‘external
interference’ which did not exist in reality. The Certification Officer has
only in fact found against UNISON in elections when there has been
inappropriate staff interference, rather than external interference. A request
for verbal amendments to the tabled proposals to be taken on the day was
defended by the same NEC delegate who had opposed on the grounds of disability
access a more simple verbal motion on whether the QC's should meet.
As all amendments raised through questions had been
discussed and lost on the vote at the Development and Organisation subcommittee
meeting held previously, and with time running increasingly short, it was agreed
to take a vote on the proposals as a total package unamended. If that vote fell,
we would return to amendments.
There was some conflicting advice with one officer
suggesting that there was no need to take amendments and another stating there
was.
The vote was taken on the Service Group Executive election procedures
and the new procedures passed. 33 For, 28 against, 6 abstentions. The
nominating period runs from 10th January 2022 to 11th February 2022. During the
discussion on the Service Group Executive election procedures an NEC member
stated that it was outlined in the NEC handbook that NEC members cannot be
mandated on which way to vote at the NEC by either Branches, Service groups, Self
Organised groups or Regions.
UNISON Staff pension scheme
The NEC received a confidential and detailed report from the UNISON Staff Pension Board of Trustees. The NEC agreed recommendations from the Trustees to ensure the scheme remained viable. The voting figures were unclear (’60-ish’) with one abstention, so clearly carried.
