NEC Report, meeting held on 10 December 2025

1. General Secretary’s report

The General Secretary reported on several matters including the Covid enquiry outcome and the passage of the Employment Rights Bill (ERB) and the government’s withdrawal of its manifesto commitment to bring in rights to claim unfair dismissal from day one.

The General Secretary spoke about the change to migrant worker visas which she said was of ‘incredible concern’ and that the changes shouldn’t be happening and which were ‘absolutely shocking’. The General Secretary highlighted the upcoming lobby of Parliament.

The General Secretary also talked about meeting with members from Dorset Health branch recently, who had done so much to get the government to change tack on NHS subcos. The General Secretary also referenced the ongoing Gloucester phlebotomists dispute and the dispute at the Miner’s Museum in Wakefield branch.

There were questions from the floor about the impact on public services of the migrant worker changes with one Black delegate saying that such changes should be exposed for being racist in nature. The General Secretary confirmed that she believed that the policy is racist.

One NEC member raised a concern that the Communist Party of Britain, of which some NEC reps are members, have adopted a strategy to seek to ‘reverse gender identity policy in the trade union movement’ and called on the General Secretary and our NEC to guard against such anti-trans hostile measures. The General Secretary responded that our policy had not changed.

An NEC member asked a question about the changes to the ERB and said that she viewed the change as a betrayal. The General Secretary spoke about the lobbying that we did as a union to get proper day one rights but that there was a ‘collective view’ taken by the unions that the Bill needed to be in place as soon as possible to benefit as many workers as possible. An NEC member from the South West picked up on this point and said that they recognised the pros and cons of the amended Bill and threatened delays by the Lords, but thought that the decision to renege on this important manifesto commitment by the Labour government was wrong and if they did not think they could deliver on it they should not have made this promise during the last general election. The same delegate welcomed the work that our union and its officers had done on lobbying for improved rights for workers, but raised a concern about whether UNISON had voted for or signed up to a deal on this change to the ERB because Composite F at last year’s National Delegate Conference had mandated the NEC to work with the TUC on protecting the original proposals. They asked how the NEC can have done that work if we were not asked for our view before a ‘deal’, which has been reported to the media by Labour Ministers as being reached between unions and employers. The General Secretary replied to say that there was no deal and no vote on a deal, and that it was not that kind of meeting, and said that the Lords had breached convention already by rejecting a manifesto proposal longer than any others and that certain rights needed to be in place by April.

An NEC member from the North West also raised concerns about the continuing delay in the rollback of ballot thresholds and called for us to lobby for these to be removed immediately. The General Secretary gave that commitment to continuing to call for immediate repeal.

A South East NEC member raised a question about the fight back against continuing public service cuts and lack of progress on a national campaign including a demonstration led by UNISON. The ‘Public Services Bailout’ motion at NDC 2025 had been a flagship motion and highly prioritised. An Assistant General Secretary reported that there is ongoing work with the TUC on the matter of the demonstration. The Vice-President (who also chairs the Policy Development and Campaigns Committee) reported back progress on a wider ‘Public Services Bailout’ motion but in reality there was very little of substance to report and no timelines mentioned.

It was noted that Black Members conference clashed with Ramadan and Eid, but it was noted that Black Members Committee had asked for and agreed to these dates and there wasn’t much that can be done about it at this late stage.

2. Fighting Reform

The NEC received a presentation from Hope not Hate (HnH) representative Nick Knowles, Nick highlighted the biggest threat we face from the far right in generations and that many of the appalling racist views are now spoken openly and are commonplace. Nick spoke about a targeted campaign against progressives in Britain. On the bright side, Nick pointed out that Reform, whilst leading in the polls are at about 27% with low general approval ratings. Nick spoke about Hope not Hate concentrating work on stopping Reform winning 326 seats.

There was a wide-ranging discussion about elections, voting, workplace responses and the electoral system. It was noted by a South East NEC member that an argument traditionally used against proportional representation was that it gave small parties a voice, but now the bigger danger was in allowing Reform to win a big majority with just 30% of the vote.

3. Presidential report

We received a joint report which included notice of a visit to the Norwegian public services union Faforbundet conference in Oslo and attendance at a conference in Costa Rica.

4. Organising Report

We received a report confirming a fourth year of membership growth of 20,000 net new members so far in the year to date, or +1.6%. This is particularly seen in social care and schools. We are also witnessing activist growth, though both this rate of growth and that of membership is lower than in 2024.

5. Finance Report

The NEC received a budget report to date, showing a current surplus of about £4 million with a forecast outturn of about £500,000 surplus. We also received a budget proposal for 2026 and financial plan for 2027-28.

The NEC agreed to set a budget for a modest surplus of £0.05 million for next year. It was noted that this relies heavily on higher membership income of 4.8% than was budgeted in 2025 and that “even modest adverse movements in income, [staff] pay outcomes, or non-pay inflation could eliminate the planned surpluses and place immediate pressure on reserves”.

A South East NEC member raised an issue about in the Finance report which was proposing an enabling motion on a review of subscription rates, when such a motion was tabled at National Delegate Conference in June 2025. It was not reached and so became the property of the NEC, so there was in reality no need to wait to make the modest changes to the subscriptions Bands at K and above which were necessary to provide equity. The FRMC in 2023-25 had already done the preparatory work necessary and the motion passed by the NEC was only a motion to enable consultation. The decision to work on another enabling motion led to concerns voiced that a wider review of the subscription bands may be under consideration, and that this could lead to higher subs rates for low paid members. The Chair was invited to rule this out. The new Chair of FRMC said that the new Committee still felt that a new enabling motion was necessary and did not rule anything out.

A North West delegate raised a concern that the Finance Report stated that the Member Online Expenses system (MOLE) was to be made mandatory from 1st January 26 and asked for the NEC to reconsider this. The Chair of FRMC reported that all branches would be required to sign up by 1st January 2026 and felt that plenty of notice had been provided. Other NEC delegates raised teething problems such as issues around payment times and advance payments and queried how use could be compulsory if there are no Rulebook penalties or mechanisms for enforcement. The Chair of FRMC replied that he believes that the teething issues are being addressed and that there are no plans for penalties for non-compliance. It appears that branches are being told the system is mandatory to incentivise take up, though this is causing stress in some branches.

A South East NEC member raised an issue about the liquidity of our capital investments in Unity Trust Bank. The minutes of the previous meeting stated that our proposed new purchase of £7 million in shares ‘could be sold at any time’. This was not the case, as first a buyer must be found and they are not sold on the open market. This is why in practice the shares are very rarely sold. It was asserted that the Chair of FRMC had stated the shares could be sold at any time, and that as he stated it, even though it was wrong, it would remain on the record of the October meeting.

6. Bargaining report

The NEC received a report from across the sectors of various collective bargaining issues.

7. Next meeting

Agreed to be on Wednesday 18th February 2025.