Report of UNISON National Executive Council 6th December 2023

General Secretary Report

The General Secretary raised the situation in Israel-Palestine. There has been an escalation in the violence in Gaza. UNISON policy remains the same, with a call for a ceasefire in our statements and a two-state solution in our policy. She said it was good to see our President speaking at the Palestine solidarity demos.

Regarding the King’s Speech, the General Secretary said tax is ever-increasing, with the tax burden now the highest on record, but there is less and less spending on public services. In N.Ireland there is still no sign of a pay award for our members.

In Scotland, local government have accepted an improved pay offer from the employers. There is a crisis in local government elsewhere, such as Birmingham and Nottingham, where years of Tory austerity is destroying public services.

Health and social care workers: Immigrants applying for visas are under more attacks with the new rules from the Tory government. Many of these workers are getting super exploited and tied to poor private employers.

Minimum Service Levels – the TUC is involved and held a special conference on 8 December to discuss the issue.

Questions and points re Israel/Palestine

We discussed the attacks on Gaza. Over 22,000 people killed in Gaza and over 80% of the population displaced, with attacks on health services, all tell of the massacre in Gaza. We are witnessing some of the “heaviest conventional bombing campaigns in history.”

We need to look at a stronger statement on Gaza, with the Labour Party criticised for not even calling for a ceasefire. We discussed how we can work more closely with other organisations that support the call for a ceasefire. UN investigation of sexual violence is getting no support from the Israeli Government. We should include a call to support anti-war activists in Israeli. Trade unions need to play a more significant role in developing a mass movement to challenge the slaughter in Gaza.

Statement on Palestine strengthened following intervention from NEC members. Read it here: https://www.unison.org.uk/news/2023/12/unison-condemns-the-resumption-of-violence-in-gaza-and-calls-for-an-immediate-ceasefire/

We raised the issue of the Labour Link affiliation to the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM). Some NEC members argued that the JLM supports the policies of the Israeli state, and the affiliation cuts across other policies and statements by UNISON. JLM have been posting on social media, giving the impression that the whole union has affiliated. This needs to be challenged and clarification sought.

Others felt that there should be sanctions available if parts of the union affiliate with organisations that do not support UNISON policy. Another NEC member stated that as the NEC sends 12 elected representatives to the National Labour Link Committee, they should be accountable to the NEC for their decisions there or at least report back on them.

There should be a call to branches to give donations to MAP and PSC, and encourage members to get more involved in the demos, taking their branch banners, etc. It is important that the leadership of the union increases their profile at the solidarity demonstrations. More pressure needs to be created by Labour Link members to force the Labour Party to change its position on a ceasefire.

The chair of the International Committee reported a £5,000 donation to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign had been made.

Questions on part two of general secretary report

We discussed how school staff’s ability to strike will be attacked by the minimum service levels bill. The Ash Field Academy strike has shown how effective strikes can be, and this ability to take strike action is under threat. Matt Wrack from the FBU is calling for opposition and defiance of the bill. Will UNISON do the same? There was a call for a more robust position of defiance against the attacks.

We also discussed the high number of motions at conferences that are ruled out of order, given the experience recently at Young Members conference at which much frustration was reported. Over 70% of motions were ruled out of order at the Young Member and LGBT+ Member conferences. There is something wrong to produce these results and we need to have a clearer rationale for these decisions from Standing Orders Committee.

We had a good discussion on the need to be bolder in our support for Trans rights, with the Labour Party less vocal on the issue, especially with the Tories likely to increase their rhetoric during a general election campaign.

Presidential Team report

The President, Libby Nolan, discussed the conferences that she had attended. At the LGBT+ conference there was a lot of discussion on supporting the Trans community that is under attack. She has received a lot of anti-Trans social media posts. UNISON’s Trans Ally Training has been a real success and needs building upon. She also mentioned that the President`s charity, Swansea Asylum Seekers Service, continues to need our support.

Questions and points: In the discussion we agreed that the union needs to be stronger in its opposition to transphobia, especially in our relationship with the Labour Party. We discussed the ongoing industrial action of the HCAs in Wirral and Warrington, with a need to increase our focus on the Tory anti-trade union laws.

Organising Update

Andrea Egan as chair of the Development & Organisation Committee reported on membership, with a net increase so far this year of 9,346 from 1st January 2023 to 26th November 2023. The health sector has been losing members, even though branches taking industrial action over re-banding have increased membership. There has been a 40% increase in activists recruited since last year. The numbers of members leaving also remains high, and joiners exceeded 200,000 in one year for the first time in UNISON’s history.

Every service group has reported 5 consecutive months of growth. A detailed cost/benefit analysis of the union’s organising activity would be reported at a future meeting.

Questions and points: In the discussion, we heard that Scotland has recruited over 10,000 new members this year, on the back of industrial action, and membership in Wales has also increased. All these figures are offset by the number of members leaving the union, but we have a small net increase overall.

Service Group Pay Campaigns

The report highlighted the ongoing issues with the Northern Ireland Health pay campaign. In the NHS, the Put Our Pay Right Campaign, is getting organised, and the NJC claim for next year will be 10% or £3,000. In Scotland FE action continues on pay. The discussions with the Government on DOCAS have been unhelpful.

Questions and points: We discussed that industrial action remains a key tool in campaigns, and really helps with recruitment. It is important to learn lessons from these campaigns, and increase work on getting better results in ballots, with a focus on how to get higher turnouts and results. The union has the resources and ability to win ballots, but there has to be a determined and serious effort to focus on this issue.  This work needs to be overviewed by the NEC.

Industrial Action Committee

Mark Fisher reported as chair. It has been a busy year, with more members demanding to take industrial action and fight for a better wage. The increase in strike pay to £50 and on occasion in request up to £70 has helped.

Questions and points: We discussed the victory at Ash Field Academy, where some of the low paid workers won a 25% pay increase. We discussed how this campaign has a lot of the key lessons for a successful campaign on pay, and we should consider inviting a striker from the campaign to speak at National Delegate Conference.

Finance Update

Dan Sartin as chair of the Finance Committee introduced the Management Accounts for the first 10 months to October 2023 and presented the UNISON Budget for 2024. Some of the ‘invest to save’ initiatives of the union which had been developed in the last two years were discussed in response to an NEC member’s question. Both the management accounts and the budget were approved by the NEC. The Budget for 2024 was approved by 55 votes for, 0 against, and 1 abstention.

 

Report of UNISON National Executive Council 25th October 2023

NEC minutes from May, June and July 2023 were all agreed.

General Secretary’s Report - The report from General Secretary Christina McAnea covered several key areas:

1. Health members in Northern Ireland are still in dispute since December 2022 to secure pay parity.
2. Local Government in Scotland, schools and early years members are leading the fight for better pay. GMB and Unite want to settle with employers in Scotland, this is a complicating issue. Strike dates through November & December in education.
3. Local Government. UNISON accepted the pay offer, with Unite taking action in pockets, and the GMB ballot results not released yet. This is delaying the process. Pay negotiations will be as difficult next year, as the Tory Government is not giving ground.
4. Labour Party Conference. We got a commitment to fund a National Care Service, but no details to be published. Also, a commitment to school support staff negotiating rights.
5. Conferences attended: Police & Justice, Retired Members, TUC, Public Service International and Labour Party.
6. 2023 Year of Black Workers. Black History Month, this October, produced some fantastic events, some based on personal contributions by individual workers, highlighting their multi-faceted lives.
7. Covid 19 Inquiry. Work continues, but UNISON focused on 2 of the 5 modules, i.e., Health and “Every Story Matters”.

NEC members asked questions and raised the following points:

• Request for a photo opportunity at the end of the meeting in support of the Ashfield Academy strikers.
• The Tory “war on woke” against the Trans community and refugees needs to be challenged more effectively by our union.
• The Equal Pay Claim struggle in Birmingham. Some workers are winning £200,000 pay outs, with others accepting the initial £45,000 offer. The second generation of claims have been settled out of court, typically for £45,000. The council do not seem to be learning lessons, so a third generation of claims may develop. The Council declaring itself bankrupt has caused a lot of worry to members. The Gen Sec confirmed that UNISON will be lodging claims for members. The Council has really mishandled this issue for years.
• The issue of the LGBT+ SOG not having a stall at NDC. All SOGs should have the right to have a stall at NDC. There is an increase in the oppression of the Trans community, particularly in schools, and the Labour Party should be pushed much further on their position.
• Request for clarity on the legal case in Northern Ireland on members pay dispute. Thanks given to the NEC for the support shown over the recent industrial action including via increased strike pay. All out action by education workers needs to be supported by the NEC in Northern Ireland.
• The FE strikes in Scotland need more media coverage by UNISON communications nationally. What further support can the union offer these workers?
• We need to push the Labour Party on their commitment on the National Care Service, and we have to avoid any watering down of our policy.

Presidential report - Vice President Steve North reported that:

• The Presidential Team had attended several conferences, including Police & Justice, Retired Members and the TUC Congress.
• The President and a wider UNISON delegation attended the 5 yearly Public Services International (PSI) conference in Geneva. The event included a fringe meeting on Tacking Climate Change in the Workplace which was chaired by Tony Wright, Chair of the UNISON Policy Committee and was attended by over 500 delegates from around the world.
• They also attended a Stand Up to Racism event where the issue of attacks on refugees by the far right had been debated.
• It was announced that the Presidential Charity nominated by this year’s President Libby Nolan this year will be Swansea Asylum Seekers Support, and everyone was asked to share details wherever possible. You can find details here and it would be great if all branches would consider donating. About SASS | Swansea Asylum Seekers Support.
• The Presidential team reported that they have visited numerous picket lines supporting members with their struggles, stating that it was an honour and a privilege to attend the disputes. This included the now successful Camden traffic warden strike, and the Ashfield academy strike in East Midlands region where over 40 days of strike action on pay have now taken place.
• There has also been a visit to Cymru/Wales for Black History Month.

Statement on Palestine and Israel - Following a detailed discussion, it was agreed that a new statement should be issued on behalf of the union calling unequivocally for an immediate ceasefire. You can read this statement here.

The union agreed a donation of £10,000 split between Medical Aid for Palestinians and the Red Cross.

Liz Wheatley, chair of the NEC’s International Committee, reminded us that before the recent horrific and unjustifiable attacks by Hamas, the death toll for Palestinians was at its highest level in Gaza and the West Bank for a number of years. She called for 5 points to be considered. (i) We need a leading member from the union speaking on the PSC platform on Saturday 28th October in London. It could be our President. (ii) We need the new statement to include a call for a ceasefire. (iii) The UNISON banner should be on all marches and protests. (iv) The DBS Campaign should be highlighted to branches and the links to the campaign sent out, underlining the complicity of the Government. (v) There should be a large donation made by the union.

NEC members reported variously,

• that members are very keen to get involved in demonstrations
• UNISON policy describes Israel as an “apartheid” state, and  our public statements need to be clearer on this
• a need for the union to put out a national call for all branches to bring their banners to demos.
• disappointment in the position of the Labour Party, banning shadow cabinet members, MPs and Councillors from attending demos.
• That the actions of Israel equate to genocide and need to be condemned more strongly by UNISON.
• UNISON need to learn the lessons of this recent development in the conflict, and aim to organise and respond more quickly when international events develop.
• The recent developments are the result of 70 years of simmering injustice. We need to call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the occupation.

 

Report of UNISON National Executive Council 14th July 2023

President Libby Nolan welcomed everyone to the NEC meeting, including new members and introduced the rest of presidential team and staff members.

1. Christina McAnea introduced her written report. Key points were:

• UNISON victory in High Court, against the government’s strike-breaking legislation. See more here High Court rules 'strike-breaking' agency worker regulations unlawful | Article, News | News | UNISON National
• Reports on the NJC ballot results. Perhaps approaching £1 million was spent on the pay campaign with investment in Movement as well as the ballot itself and campaigning and resources.
• 2 large and 5 smaller councils and approximately 800 smaller employers (mainly schools) reached the 50% threshold. 12 larger councils got over 40% but did not reach 50%.
• Two ballots are taking place in Scotland, one finishing now and another starting soon.
• Pay Review Body decision by government to honour recommendations, for instance teachers (6.5%), doctors (6% + lump sum), prison officers, police (7%). For schools, the recommendation is reported to be fully-funded, but UNISON is concerned this is not true as the government claim some money has already been provided to schools and the rest has to be found from the Education Department’s budget, so means others cuts within education. It’s not clear if other recommendations are funded, meaning for instance the doctors’ offer might mean more NHS cuts. UNISON’s NHS members are not covered by this recommendation, but by the 5% offer and lump sum agreed earlier in the year.
• Covid enquiry, of which UNISON is contributing as part of the TUC’s submissions on behalf of all trade unions. The TUC is exceeding its budget on this and unions are recommending changes to the approach the TUC has taken to contain costs.

Discussion and questions: 

The backdrop of the recent local government pay ballot results in England and Wales and the pay review body announcements naturally dominated the discussions:

1. Local Government members of the NEC stated that a 75% reject result should not be written off or downplayed; that if it were not for the anti-union laws (requiring 50% thresholds, no online voting, etc.), we would have now been planning for action as a 31% turn out had for many years been seen as an acceptable mandate for action. 31% was more than double the turnout from the postal ballot for NJC pay 18 months ago.  Lessons need to be learned: Movement (UNISON’s phone banking system) is working better but is not perfect. Why did some branches do better, with strong votes in schools (and perhaps disappointment for the hundreds of schools that reached 50%). Should  we have done targeted ballots like in Scotland, for instance.
2. If there is no money to fund the Pay review recommendations is UNISON going to fight this?
3. UNISON’s bulk email system for branches within WARMS is down, so have the NJC LG pay results gone to branch members?
4. What is happening in health with UNISON’s decision to withdraw from the pay review body. What is UNISON proposing to replace it?
5. What are we doing to support anti-union law campaigning as UNISON’s position is to oppose all anti-unions laws not just the 2016 Trade Union Act and Minimum Service Levels Bill.
6. In light of the government’s proposals relating to pay review body recommendations, the government is whipping up anti-migrant sentiment, stating that migrants will be made to pay more for visas and services like the NHS. UNISON need to challenge this.
7. Scottish NEC members raised the issue that they hadn’t been able to use Movement in their recent ballot.
8. The Camden traffic wardens ballot got a 100% YES vote on an 80% turnout. Action will be notified soon to the employer.

2. Allocation and election to NEC committees

There was thorough discussion on this. The chair pointed out that since many committees have limited numbers, with a large number having just 3 NEC members, and there are 67 NEC members, then unfortunately not every NEC member will receive their first choices for committee/s. UNISON rules on fair representation and proportionality have to ensure a majority of women and other equality groups must be represented. Add to that 12 regions and 7 service groups, the task is complex.

A small number of NEC members stated unhappiness at their allocation or that some service groups were under-represented. Others were happy that regardless of who they had stood with in the NEC elections, they had been listened to. The General Secretary reported that this is how it works every year and that this year seemed more successful than recent years. 

Those unhappy were reminded to submit emails to the President raising questions or requests to see if any changes can be considered.

3. TUC nominations

The NEC voted to send:

• Libby Nolan
• Julia Mwaluke
• Steve North
• Chair of PDCC (once elected)

4. Labour Party conference delegation

It was agreed that since this had to be Labour Link and Party members, this would be voted on separately online to allow for checks of membership.

5. 2023-2025 meeting dates

Dates were circulated 

6. Break for committees to all briefly meet to elect chairs and vice-chairs. The following were then elected by individual committees:

Development & Organisation – Andrea Egan and John Jones

Policy Development & Campaigns Committee – Tony Wright and Kath Owen

Service to Members – Mark Wareham and Nathalie Birkett

International – Liz Wheatley and Tony Wilson

Finance – Dan Sartin and Ant Solera

Staffing – Steve North and Jane Doolan

Industrial Action – Mark Fisher and Julia Mwaluke

Report ends.

Report of UNISON National Executive Council 16th June 2023

The newly-elected NEC met for the first time on Friday 16 June straight after national conference ended.

Keen followers of the elections will be aware the results were mixed with several surprise wins and defeats, and several long-standing NEC members had stood down. So almost half of the NEC are now brand-new representatives.  Time for Real Change remain the largest group on the NEC.  The Time for Real Change group now has 32 seats, the Socialist Party with 1 seat, the Unison Unity group* with 29 seats, and 5 independents.

The first NEC meeting is solely to elect the 3 members of the Presidential Team who in Unison’s constitution are the honorary (unpaid) principal officers of the NEC, who work alongside the General Secretary (the employed principal officer)

So, this meeting was to decide who the NEC supports for the presidential team for the next year. For the third year in a row Time for Real Change supporters were elected by the NEC as the presidential team.  

The votes cast were as follows:

President – Libby Nolan (existing Vice President and Cymru/Wales Region female seat) – 35 votes to 32

Senior VP – Steve North (North West region male seat) 35 to 32

Junior VP – Julia Mwaluke (Black Members’ reserved female seat) 34 to 33

The next full meeting of the NEC on Friday 14 July will be to agree membership of the all the NEC committees which lead much of the work and carry out policy and crucially the Chairs and Vice chairs of these committees. 

*Some of those which have been reported to be part of the Unison Unity slate, state they are not a formal group or slate. But there was publicity circulated clearly promoting them as a group of candidates. We welcome support and cooperation from all NEC members in the two years ahead.

 

Report of UNISON National Executive Council 12th April 2023

1) Best wishes were sent to Mark Fisher, Kevin Jackson, John Jones – all of whom were unwell or recovering from hospital treatment. Obituaries: a minute’s silence was observed for Tommy Williams, Scotland; Paul Fisher, LGBT+ rep; Phil Harland, H+S Central Lancs.

2) Matters arising

The chair of the Staffing Committee raised an inaccuracy in the previous edition of U-magazine that had announced it was the last issue of U-magazine ever to be produced due to a decision by the NEC. The Finance Committee (FRMC) which had ratified the 2023 budget had made reduced provision for one issue of U-magazine in 2023 due to budget constraints, but no decisions had been made for 2024 and beyond. The minutes of FRMC reflect this, as do the minutes of the NEC in December, neither of which were challenged as inaccurate. The Director of Finance confirmed that we have not closed the door on producing further editions.

Due to his view of the published inaccuracy in U-magazine, the chair of Staffing Committee asked for a suitable correction to go out to members. Unison officers reported they had terminated our contract with printer, paper suppler and post office, as no further editions were planned in their view. The chair of the Finance Committee affirmed that no decision had been taken to cease U-magazine, and the FRMC had approved the business case for the £4 million digital project at its November meeting on the basis of U-magazine reducing in frequency from 4 to 2 issues; this was a written business case. A member of the FRMC disputed this and asserted her recollection that U-magazine had been stopped.

The President asked that the matter to go back to the Finance Committee and Policy & Campaigns Committees and be reported back to next NEC.

3) General Secretary report

a) Praise was given to the nine health branches who took strike action: we had brilliant publicity and got an offer out to consultation.

b) Unison as an affiliate to the Labour Party: we are now laying the ground for the next general election. Last date possible for it is January 2025. Lots of work is underway to influence the manifesto, and ensure members are registered to vote. Last election: one case of voter fraud has led to legislation which could make up to 2 million voters disqualified from voting in future elections (e.g. older people can use travel cards, young people cannot, as they are unlikely to vote Tory!)

c) Year of Black Worker, arrangements will be made to contact all committees

d) Turkey – trade unionist released from prison to house arrest. Christina was in USA at time visiting other public sector unions. How they work and campaign with Biden administration and fight for social care.

Questions asked:

a) Problems with resources when we are balloting more than one section of the union were raised, as we do need to be able to fight more than one fight at a time.

b) Concerns raised about Christina giving an interview to GB News given their stand on racism in particular. Response – Gloria De Piero is an ex-Labour MP, sympathetic to unions, so agreed to an interview with her.

c) Need to look at changes in Labour Party policies which depart from Unison’s policy. Response – not what we see. We have reps on Labour Party NEC and do submit policy responses. We are fighting for our policies. Labour is talking of the biggest insourcing in a generation. If Jeremy Corbyn stands for MP then anyone who supports him will be expelled from Labour. We do not interfere in any disciplinary process, our rep present abstained on key decision.

d) Thanks given to Unison for International Women’s Day event in Scotland.

e) TUC decision re NEU – Response from Christina – it has not gone to TUC general council yet but Unison won on 3 counts and we have been awarded £85,000. NEU will have to put out material to say they do not have a place on NJC for school support staff.

f) NHS dispute won an improved offer not just by the 9 striking Unison branches to whom we all extend our absolute thanks, but by 176 RCN branches and the many Unite, GMB, CSP, SOR and now BMA junior doctors. Given both years of the offer are below inflation, it is unlikely to help with any of the problems of recruitment and retention which make NHS work so exhausting and is driving people away. Asked to send messages of support to both North of Ireland health workers still in dispute, and to BMA which were both agreed.  Response – we tried to work closely with other unions. Despite problems where RCN criticised us for offering solidarity with them. We will oppose the RCN plan for nurses’ breakaway pay spine. No-one ever gets what you want, members will decide on offer.

g) There is a plan for Stephen Lawrence 30th anniversary.

4) National Delegate Conference decisions

a) Motions. All motions supported except:

• M85, Support if amended; the NEC agreed an amendment following a debate about whether we should mandate advertising legal support in all marketing of the union as it builds a false picture when so many members’ cases are not supported. There is a review of Thompsons’ contract currently being undertaken)
• defer motion 45 (awaiting amendments)
• oppose Motion 7 (it is trying to remove the ability to speak outside of Unison capacity in a personal capacity, members do have the right to campaign in the union; any racist, fascist views would be dealt with by other rules)
• support only if amended (oppose if not) motion 35
• seek withdrawal Motions 86 and 87; both seek a review of out of pocket expenses which has been completed (and overnight subsistence expenses have been raised by last NEC meeting). One seeks lobbying of HMRC which has also already been done.
• leave to conference Motion 43 on unionised worker coops.

b) NEC Amendments agreed on:

• Motion 11 death repatriation clarifies extent of research
• Motion 31 crisis in social care
• Motion 35 campaigning for better procurement
• Motion 39 housing policy
• Motion 45 integrated care systems
• Motion 53 ethnicity pay gap
• Motion 63 constitution of UK
• Motion 68 time limits for employment
• Motion 74 migrant workers
• Motion 85 legal services
• Motion 88 amended to add third action point to work with There for You.

c) Rule amendments:

• supported 1, 2, 5, 7, 8
• opposed 6
• defer 3 (to discuss with Police & Justice SGE), 4 (to ask branch as NEC have similar motion)

d) Annual report was agreed.

e) Motion and Rule amendment priorities; the NEC agreed these, proposing 11 of the 12 NEC motions and one equality motion from a SOG.

f) Agreed to award Unison honorary membership to Doreen and Neville Lawrence and invite them to speak at conference. Other speakers will be Rosa Pavinelli Gen Sec PSI, a speaker from Covid Families campaign, and Rosena Allin-Khan, shadow mental health minister and frontline GP.

5) Organising update

Members joining in the year to date were 60,000 (up by 57%).

Leavers though in the year to date were 67,000 (up by 28%) so retention still priority issue. Biggest net loss has been in Health. Overall, we have a 0.5% decline in membership in the year so far.

Members joining the union have been overtaken by members leaving for 12 out of the previous 16 years (2007-2022). In 2021, UNISON’s membership declined by approximately 30,000 members. There has also been a decline in members being active across all our activist roles; an 18.9% decrease in ERA accredited activists from 2016-2021. The scale of the task facing the union was clear and urgent.

6) Pay campaigns

• NJC strike ballot starts on 23rd May; 720 employers only have 1 member. 4,600 employers in total in a disaggregated ballot.
• Orchard day nursery strike had won recognition with 100% membership, then all staff dismissed, and company wound up even though profitable. The NEC agreed a wider appeal for financial support.
• Northern Ireland health strikers did request increased strike pay which was agreed for their recent strike due to their exceptional circumstances. Chair of Industrial Action Committee reported this was set at £70 a day.
• Industrial action handbook and toolkit needs to be updated but little progression due to pressures on balloting team. But this does need to be done.

7) Disciplinary report

Accepted.

There was a question about how good the training to be on panels is.

8) Staffing report

Noted.

Discussion included reference by the Chair of Staffing that Unison does race equality monitoring and we are looking to improve this; and discussions also taking place on how to better support branches who employ staff where Unison nationally is not the employer.

9) Next meeting

Thursday 18th May

 

Report of UNISON National Executive Council 3rd April 2023

The NEC met for a special meeting with only one item on the agenda: a proposal from the FRMC (Finance committee) to increase overnight subsistence allowance. The Chair of FRMC outlined the proposal that had been agreed at FRMC with 9 in favour, 0 against and 1 abstention at their previous meeting:

• UNISON hasn’t changed its expenses scheme since 2014;
• HMRC influences what we can pay as if you pay expenses above HRMC’s permitted rates, the portion you pay above the permitted amount is liable to tax;
• UNISON’s overnight subsistence allowance is £40, but HMRC says that anything above £25 is taxable, so we tax the £15 above £25 – and at a 20% tax rate that means £3 is deducted from £40 as tax;
• FRMC wanted to review these rates as we were getting representations from members and particularly low-paid members concerned about the overnight subsistence rate being insufficient. Food inflation is at 18% currently.
• FRMC had separate discussions at its November and January meetings and decided after looking at it in detail that:
• We should not recommend changes to the daily subsistence rates which are set currently at HMRC-compliant levels and so do not need to be taxed (i.e. the £5, £10, £15 unreceipted levels). To increase these rates would increase levels of administration for the union as they would then need to be taxed, with marginal benefit to be gained;
• Not to increase mileage rates, as UNISON’s mileage rate is also set at the HMRC-compliant level. To increase the rate above 45 pence would require significant additional administration by both central Finance staff and branches who would need to administrate tax on mileage claims. It would also require investment in new payroll software;
• We should increase the overnight subsistence rate from £40 to £50.

• The estimate of costs of this change are on the range of £150K to £220K per year. We have this range of cost because normal meetings frequency since the Covid-19 pandemic has not really settled down yet. We are having fewer physical meetings than we were pre-pandemic but it remains to be seen post-lockdown just how many meetings will stay online.
• Of the 150-220K, at least half would be borne by branches; one quarter of the costs would relate to staff expenses, because if the decision to increase the overnight subsistence expenses rate is taken it would apply equally to staff; the remaining quarter would apply to lay members on other meetings such as the NEC, SOGs, SGEs and so on.
• Change should apply from April 6th which is the new tax year, which makes most sense to reduce the burden of admin on the central Finance team.
• For clarity, if the rate goes up to £50, £45 will be payable as £25 will be taxable at 20% so you’d need to deduct £5. That’s an increase of £8, from £37 to £45 net of tax.
• If this is agreed today by the NEC, communications would go out as soon as possible so that branches are advised in advance of the Health Service Group Conference on 17th April.

In discussion, some NEC members made various points to oppose the change:

• It was not affordable given the deficit of 2022;
• It would be problematic in Scotland due to different tax regime;
• It would be problematic for members on Universal Credit who may lose it.

It was discussed in response that:

• No member needs to claim Overnight Subsistence if they have concerns about tax or benefits; there is a set of receipted allowances and these do not impact on tax or benefits;
• The impact on both would likely be negligible (pennies not pounds) but tax and benefit matters are inevitably highly personalised and so advice should be sought from tax or benefits office if any member or activist has concerns;
• Branches are not compelled to pay the higher rate to branch members, though it was suggested that the NEC should consider mandating this to ensure that low-paid members were not disadvantaged because of the branch they happened to be in;
• The change was affordable and proportionate to inflation and would make a considerable difference to encourage participation, particularly amongst low-paid members.

What was anticipated to be an uncontroversial decision in support of the Finance Committee’s position took up the full allotted hour with many speakers lining up to strongly criticise the proposal. Due to the way the debate had panned out, one NEC delegate asked for a ‘roll call’ for the vote i.e. it would be a named vote. 2 delegates who had vocally opposed the increase lost their internet connection at that point, meaning their vote was not registered, and other speakers who had been strongly against the rise decided to abstain after hearing the full debate.

The vote recorded was: 36 For, 2 Against with 5 Abstentions.

  

Report of UNISON National Executive Council meeting 8th February 2023

1) Introductions

Obituaries were given. A minute’s silence was held to honour all those former members.

The passing of Jon Rogers was noted, a long-standing member of the NEC who had died a few days ago after a long illness. He will be sadly missed and the Vice-President in the chair who knew Jon gave a moving speech. Many will remember with a smile his amusing speeches at conference and his commitment to fighting for UNISON members. He also had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of UNISON and its rulebook.

Best wishes were sent by the NEC to John Jones, NEC member in the WET seat, who is unwell and in hospital.

Sympathy and solidarity was shared for all those in Turkey and Syria killed, injured, bereaved or made homeless and jobless by the earthquake.

Concern was raised that the Greater London Regional Council AGM had been moved to the same day as the NEC meeting, making it impossible for many members to be both at the NEC and accountable to their Region in their regional roles.

2) General Secretary report

Industrial action is taking place in several sectors: Health, Higher Education, WET (Environment Agency). Christina and the NEC sent messages of support to all of them. It was clear that all the strikes have public support and the government has no strategy except more anti-trade union laws. UNISON is challenging the new anti-strike laws in court.

Questions were asked by many NEC members about attempting to coordinate industrial action across UNISON and with other unions. On February 1st there were 500,000 workers on strike and huge demos across lots of towns and cities which raised the morale and confidence of all those on them.

NEC members expressed a desire for more coordination on 15th March budget day when several unions NEU, UCU, etc. had already declared the intention to strike. If we can name the day as soon as possible then those with live ballots can be asked if they want to join; also those branches with massive ‘Yes’ votes but not reaching ballot thresholds can plan to take part in other ways, such as lunch time demonstrations, etc. There was some criticism of the lack of UNISON involvement on February 1st.  Some NEC members felt we should stand with all pickets regardless of which union they are from and not criticise other unions’ strikes.

There is a strategy for winning more ballot thresholds. We need to look at messaging to encourage those who will not vote for strike action to vote in any case, as ‘No’ votes help us get over the 50% threshold. There was a TUC meeting today and Gloria Mills was attending for UNISON.

Responses from Christina were that UNISON was not part of February 1st because it is up to local branches and service groups in dispute. There has been no official discussion on March 15th budget day being the next day of action. ‘Coordination’ of strike action does not necessarily mean all striking at the same time, it could be a rolling programme of dates.

Ambulance Services have already agreed dates and 15th March is not in that list, but the week before is. We are asking for more strike pay for those at the bottom of the ambulance pay scales so they can sustain action for longer. It was felt better to do action separately as you get more TV coverage on more days.

Jon Richards (Assistant General Secretary) said the reason we only re-balloted in a few health employers was not because of lack of resources to do so but so that we target those with the best chance of winning. We have to say we are opposed to a general strike because it is unlawful to do otherwise and will be used against us by government. We may see legal action by employers based on public statements made by UNISON reps.

We want to ballot to win and strike to win. Action is isolated and this is a challenge. We need to develop a new strategy, such as that which began in Scotland: more targeted with systematic focus on phone banking and texting, disaggregated basis – we got 9 out of 32 across the line. We generally failed in the NHS. Re-ballots are much smaller. HE re-ballots had very bad outcomes. We need more lay ownership of systems. It is embarrassing that we are not leading the resistance to government attacks on public sector workers. We do have isolated pockets: Manchester Met University is heroically taking action today in a long-running dispute.

Question on how we can support people in Turkey and Syria following the terrible earthquake. Response: UNISON is speaking with unions in Turkey who are trying to launch an appeal but the Turkish government want it to be done through government. Syria is much more difficult as there are no free trade unions. We may be able to coordinate through Kurdish organisations, otherwise we would go through the Disaster Emergency Committee.

Year of Black Workers 2023: we would have special lanyards at national conference. Racism is on rise, fascists are increasingly standing in elections. There is an International Day of Action on Saturday 18th March with protests in all capital cities. UNISON will look to support this.

NHS demo: Save Our NHS / Support the Strikes on 11th March. UNISON is supporting this.

3) Presidential report

In the report there was a reference to National Delegate Conference 2022 and the reports the Presidential Team have received from upset and disillusioned delegates who felt the behaviour was disgusting and totally inappropriate for a UNISON conference. The Presidential Team do not believe that if such behaviour is repeated it should be tolerated this year. Examples included ongoing barracking of delegates speaking at the rostrum, including first-time speakers, and prolonged coordinated disruption of conference.

Some NEC members present complained that the intention to deal with such behaviour in 2023 was a ‘threat’ and intimidating. A Northern Ireland rep said that the Northern Ireland delegation will demonstrate and protest and will not be gagged. Other NEC members stated it was clear that NDC 2023 had been made a toxic event: we need a conference where everyone feels welcomed. We want the Presidential Team and Gen Secretary to work together on how to make this happen in 2023.

One NEC member asked for part of the statement which said she had disagreed with the General Secretary to be withdrawn and an NEC statement to be sent to all regional SOGs. In response, agreement was made to meet with the NEC rep.

NEC reps asked to hear more about a recent trip to Palestine by two NEC members and condemned what is happening there currently and called for UNISON to kickstart its support for the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions campaign. It was agreed this will happen.

Question on Birmingham Equal pay campaign. Using job evaluation had not been maintained: no equal pay audits had been done. 600,000 won. But in discussions with the council, it is apparent Birmingham want to walk away from the scheme and use the Hay evaluation scheme, which is not appropriate for broad spread of jobs.

4) Motions to National conference

We had initially tried to have a motion on Hong Kong but had to drop this as the NEC is only allowed 12.

12 motions were therefore agreed by the NEC for NDC 2023 as follows:

Iran: Women, Life, Liberty Iran. Motion on the huge protests led by women against laws forcing the wearing of Hijab and also for Human Rights more generally.

Organising and recruitment strategy including plans for and a 10% target for recruiting new reps

Empowering UNISON members – political education courses to encourage participation

Taking effective action within the straitjacket of anti-trade union laws – how to overcome ballot thresholds, training courses on industrial action, learning from experiences.

Climate emergency post-COP27 and decarbonising. Crucial issue as the climate emergency becomes more acute daily.

Health and safety: the national crisis of stress and its impact on public sector workers.

Crisis in NHS and Social Care – urgent as services are increasingly broken with 600+ deaths a week due to delayed admissions.

Childcare, women and economic growth. UK has the highest childcare costs in world. Free childcare would boost economy by £13 billion.

Retained EU law and attack on workers’ rights. The clock could be turned back decades – removing protections on leave, TUPE, pregnancy, anti-discrimination, etc.

Defend the Right to Strike – new Minimum Services Thresholds Bill will deprive us of the right to strike.

Local Government and devolution

Effective use of our union’s resources to build our Industrial Action Fund and capacity to deliver effective industrial action.

Only Motion 12 received any significant debate on the day. Given this, we will publish separately the full motion and the discussion had at the Finance Committee of the NEC which agreed the motion.

On Motion 12, Effective use of our union’s resources to build our Industrial Action Fund and capacity to deliver effective industrial action, all NEC members agreed we need to grow our union to defend members. We need to support effective industrial action and that this is patchy at the moment, as we had heard previously in the meeting. We want to be able to do this better but need resources to improve. Some branches have very high reserves e.g. £250+ per member, which are never utilised. The union had a couple of exceptional years during the pandemic where reserves increased due to lower activity than usual. The motion proposes a one-off investment due to the current cost-of-living crisis, to use resources from those branches with the very highest reserves (over £113 per member), and this amount will be matched by national cash-in-hand reserves. The money will be put in to strengthen the Industrial Action Fund and projects to make us better able to meet ballot thresholds and take the action needed to win, such as rapid response teams to support industrial action in regions, improvements to phone and text infrastructure, etc. It still leaves those branches affected (197 out of 840) with very significant reserves of £113 per member.

As the government digs in we need to win more ballots to defend members’ pay, terms and conditions. Some NEC members argued we needed to postpone and wait. Others said we need urgently to improve our capacity to take action. In the North West, NEC delegates reported their own disputes team that mobilises support for any branch that faces possible industrial action and which has won many ballots as a result. It has never been more important for branches to be able to take action.  There is money out there in a minority of branches’ reserves which got much bigger during the pandemic. This would be a better use for that money than sitting in accounts with little interest and where it will never get spent. One NEC member was concerned if other unions do deliver positive ballot results and UNISON cannot. This could destabilise UNISON in the long-term if members leave for other unions. One teaching union had reported huge numbers of joiners since being the only teaching union to get over the threshold. Some NEC members stated UNISON should not have increased strike pay to £50 per day.

The motion was carried by 27 votes for, 15 against.

5) Rules changes to national conference

Non-gendered language to be applied throughout the rule book.

Honorary life membership: clarity that when nominated, members need to be in full membership.

All branches and UNISON meetings can be online, hybrid or face-to-face, which will enable branches who have not amended their own rules to hold online/hybrid meetings if they wish regardless of their own branch rules. (Best practice meeting protocols will be produced advising how to hold online/hybrid meetings.)

GDPR – all branch officers must do mandatory GDPR training within 3 months of taking office. There was some debate as whether this is in proportion to the level of risk and concern about what happens if officers do not do the training. Will officers be told they cannot be offices? Is it discriminatory towards low-paid workers, without facility time, who more likely to be female and Black? Carried 28 for, 10 against.

GDPR – the branch secretary must ensure the branch is compliant (this is an update to an existing rule).

6) Disciplinary issues
Agreed report.

7) Staffing report

Noted.

8) UNISON staff pensions

UNISON needs to pay into the Government pension protection scheme, a contingency plan all pension schemes pay into. We are using the UNISON centre as an asset to qualify for a saving on the levy. This saving has increased recently due to improvements in the position of UIA.

9) Finance update

The 2022 end of year management accounts were reported. These are still draft figures, which will be finalised fully in April. UNISON had a larger deficit budget than planned for, reflecting increased costs post pandemic, but particularly payroll costs for staff, and other inflationary costs.

Subs income was £172.6m, which was in line with budget but £2 million less than in 2021 (where membership had increased due to anxieties over Covid).

The end of year predicted deficit is £4.8 million (£2.7 million budgeted for) due mainly to Payroll costs. UNISON had budgeted for a 2% staff pay increase but the eventual settlement was much greater than this. Additional pension costs are also a key factor in additional expenditure.

UNISON had some savings from reduced costs: training held online, overhead costs reduced in regions, advertising budget was underspent.

UNISON also had some unanticipated overspends in some departments. The Finance Committee has discussed these and has asked for greater controls so that spending over agreed budgets is signed off formally on each occasion it happens, either by the Director of Finance, or the Finance Committee itself.

The NEC looked at projections for 2023-25. If Payroll grows at a time membership income is static or drops, this is problematic for the union. We need a long-term strategy for our Finances as the previous approach of ‘trimming back’ each year has now run out of road. Nevertheless, we are generally in a good financial state, with good reserves but need to develop a long-term strategy.

10) Organising update

185,000 new members had joined in 2022, the strongest areas being in Health and Scotland. Young member joiners are up 65%, which is a very positive trend.

UNISON ended 2022 with 4,000 new members net growth.

Biggest growth comes where ballots have taken place. Movement and peer to peer texting made a real difference.

Big gains are made where we are strategically organising e.g. NHS band 2 to band 3 campaigns.

Activist base – we had 2,279 new activists but overall it is a net loss.

11) Pay

Much of this was already covered in detail in the General Secretary’s earlier report and discussion.

Schools: £130m won in Term Time Only campaign. Case against NEU at TUC will be heard tomorrow.

Some NEC members expressed the need to draw in the mass of workers not currently on strike in health and local government, if we are to win on pay. There was a debate on the role of strike action and differing views expressed.