NEC Report, meeting held on 15 October 2025
1. General Secretary’s report
The General Secretary spoke to her circulated report. As ever, a range of questions were asked about it.
One representative asked when Tory ballot thresholds would be rescinded. The response was that this would be covered later in the meeting.
One representative was disappointed not to see reference to WET in the report and stated that UNISON need to fill the void created on water renationalisation that Labour had left with its own policy, and not doing so was causing issues for members, like abuse from the public. The General Secretary’s response was that UNISON is always very clear on our policy calling for renationalisation.
One representative wanted a service group to be established for Private Contractors, going beyond the current Forum arrangements. The General Secretary agreed to meet with the Forum and other reps.
One representative highlighted the social care Fair Pay Agreement and felt it was too small an advance for our members, which was delayed until 2028, and asked what we were doing to fight for more investment more quickly. They also felt that members should see what UNISON’s lobbying strategy was and for it not be conducted ‘behind closed doors’. The General Secretary was pleased the government was doing something, even if it was not enough.
One North West delegate welcomed the figures in the Organising report we would discuss later and called for more funding for and embedding of the Organising agenda.
One representative spoke in this section about Section 13 arrests of her branch members at Palestine Action demonstrations. Following experience in their branch, they wanted clearer guidance from UNISON that employers should not push ahead with internal disciplinary cases until criminal cases had concluded, and advocated for a national UNISON position statement on S13 arrests to be released. This was an important part of UNISON honouring its conference policy to protect the right to protest. The Director of Legal Services responded that UNISON could look at putting out guidance to employers not to over-react. The UNISON judicial review on ET fees took 4 years and so there appeared to be reluctance to get involved in this area.
One representative spoke in this section about cuts in Local Government. Their local authority is due to be £30 million worse off than it was due to LG Funding reforms. The county council was already closing its own remaining residential home for dementia impacting 32 members and would be budgeting for £10 million less in 2026-27 and the following two years due to funding ‘reforms’. They asked what the Union is doing at the most senior levels (General Secretary, Labour Party NEC), considering the UNISON NEC gets no reports from the National Labour Link Committee. This was so despite a previous commitment to look into the provision of reports from the Vice Chair of the NLLC. The NEC representative also asked what the Plan B was for members if our pressure on Labour did not stop these huge cuts. The General Secretary responded that she raises LG funding with the Chancellor and Deputy PM whenever she meets them. She accepted that LG was facing total disaster, and stated that UNISON was working with other unions and the LGA. Our Plan B was that we would continue to pressure Government to see a shift in their fiscal strategy, and we had our organising strategy. It would be for the LG SGE to consider industrial action.
One delegate asked about the TUC’s motion, passed recently at TUC conference, to hold an anti-austerity demonstration. What progress was in train? The response indicated that there might not be any reportable progress yet.
2. Presidential Team report
A representative raised the lack of information given to the NEC on strategic committee meetings that had taken place between the NEC convening in July and October’s NEC meeting. The NEC had no minutes or decision reports from Committees, which was a change to custom and practice, and one which left the NEC helpless to scrutinise decisions taken as it did not know about them. This was particularly an issue given how NEC committee seats had been divvied up. We should not tolerate an NEC with no oversight of decision-making in Committees or ability to challenge decisions.
One low-paid delegate raised that they had not been aware that one committee, the Finance Committee, had even taken place as it had had its meeting date moved and she had not received notice of this. So she herself did not know what decisions had been taken at the Finance Committee despite being a member of it. Another low-paid delegate from the same committee (Finance) also stated that they had missed the same meeting as they had found out about the change of date after the committee had taken place. How could such decisions be safe if the whole Committee had not convened, and the NEC had no sight of the decisions? This NEC member had written a letter of complaint about her experience to the President.
A commitment was made by the Presidential Team to rectify the lack of reporting for next time. The absence of decision reports would however impact on the rest of the NEC meeting as representatives had to do their best to elicit information as to what decisions had been taken in Committees. The Vice President stated there was no constitutional basis for deferring decisions, even if they received no scrutiny.
A representative from Scotland raised the process for Committee appeals and whether NEC members had received written response to appeals. This was still an issue being raised in the Scottish Regional Council due to the lack of adequate representation of their nation on key committees.
3. Organising update
As of 5th October, UNISON is in year-to-date growth of 19,206. This is positive as it is growth of 1.5%, but it is 14,000 members below 2024 growth at the same point. It appeared unlikely we would maintain growth achieved in 2024 of 3.3%.
As of 31st August, new activist recruitment is 2,823, so behind the target of what was achieved in 2024 (4,550).
A representative from the North West asked about progress made on Merlin, the commitment to provide a data export function and the need to give branches time to adapt. In their employer, Merlin was blocked by the Council’s firewall. (This was also an issue in West Sussex which took several months to resolve.) An email to activists had stated that Warms would be shut off by 31st December 2025, which was felt to be unrealistic for branches and considering there is still much work to be done on Merlin so it matches Warms’ functionality.
An NEC member voiced concern in this debate about Merlin and argued that given the necessarily patient approach of branches awaiting Merlin, we should not rush to shut it down before branches were confident in using it and it had the same functionality. Some branches use data in sophisticated ways to aid organising and servicing of members and must be able to continue with this. It was unclear what the Development & Organisation Committee had decided, if anything, as there were no Committee reports.
A commitment was given by the Acting Assistant General Secretary for Organising, Resourcing and Development not to turn off Warms until we are ready to rely only on Merlin. D&O will have detailed discussions prior to any switch off. The comms were more about incentivising branches to move to Merlin by suggesting a date for turn-off of Warms existed.
One delegate from Greater London confirmed the shut-off date had caused anxiety in her branch. They asked for another follow-up message to clarify matters and allay concern. The AGS stated this would be counterproductive and cause confusion, but the matter would come back to the next D&O committee.
4. Management accounts
This section of the meeting was confused due to the lack of decision reports being circulated and the inability of two low-paid members of that committee to attend it. Only 4 of the 18 members of the Finance Committee have ever sat on it previously, and 1 of those 4 was not able to attend due to the change of date.
There was concern raised about MOLE – Member Online Expenses – a new, online system for Treasurers paying members’ expenses through a web portal, with payments then being expedited by the national Finance team, becoming compulsory by 1st January when only 50 or so branches had used MOLE since its launch in July and teething problems may not be ironed out, and the views of Treasurers have not yet been sought. It was confirmed by the Chair of the Finance Committee that MOLE would not be compulsory by 1st January, but any branch not using MOLE would be contacted from the new year by Finance Officers and asked what support they needed to make the transition.
An NEC member intervened to ask that more nuanced comms would be issued to branches than those issued for Warms which had implied a hard and fast cut-off date. The Chair confirmed that good comms would be issued.
Also, after some discussion to tease out what had happened in the Finance Committee, it was stated by the Chair that the Committee had agreed to invest circa £7 million in Unity Bank shares. This is approximately 10% of the Union’s cash reserves. Unity Bank shares are unlike other typical shares as they are not traded on any market. A seller has to find a willing buyer and agree a price before they can be sold. Such buyers are usually other unions or not-for-profit trusts. It is rare for shares to be sold, and time-consuming to sell them, so the resource invested in them can reasonably be considered to be ‘beyond use’ once the decision is made. The shares’ value appears on the Union’s balance sheet each year and so whilst the share value is maintained or grows, these assist the reporting of the Union’s financial position.
An NEC rep asked if the Finance Committee had fully taken into account the risk of making such an investment. The Union had structural financial issues which meant that its cost-base was growing faster than its income. This issue has however significantly lessened as a problem in recent years due to significant membership and membership income growth. However, if this growth stopped, the structural financial problems would return. £7 million might be better invested in the Union’s Organising to Win efforts to grow the Union, for example, rather than putting the funds beyond use in bank shares. Earlier in the morning we had heard from one North West delegate calling for more funding for and embedding of the Organising agenda. The Chair confirmed that the Finance Committee (of which the same North West delegate was a member) had fully considered that risk but taken the decision to invest in the bank shares.
Another representative asked about whether the Finance Committee would continue the work of the previous finance committee in looking at membership fees and funding of the industrial action fund. The Chair responded that this work will continue. The same delegate also asked about work to ensure that Direct Debit payers should pay the right level of subs, and it was confirmed by the Chair that this work will continue, between the Finance and D&O committees.
One delegate from Scotland reported on how some NEC reps continued to struggle to get paid release to attend meetings. They also called for the development of guidance for branches on appropriate branch expenditures for events and hotel stays, after an incident in Scotland which they had received a complaint about.
5. Employment Rights Bill
The Director of Political Strategy reported they anticipate ballot thresholds to be removed in April 2026. It was acknowledged by officers to be disappointing to see this delay. They would not be removed at point of Royal Assent of the Bill, and their removal was linked to separate progress on electronic balloting. Thresholds are expected to be the subject of a ‘commencement order’ in April 2026 which will remove them.
The Fair Work Agency will also be created in April 2026.
The meeting concluded earlier than anticipated allowing delegates to make their journeys home.