NEC Report, meeting held on 4 December 2024
General Secretary report
NEC members received a report from the general secretariat. The report highlighted the following:
The ongoing Employment Rights Bill, which is currently going through the committee stages in Parliament.
UNISON’s commitment to calling for workplace days of action calling for a ceasefire in the Middle East and is actively pushing for the recognition of a two-state solution for Palestine.
Recruitment efforts over the past year surpassed 200,000, with Northern Ireland seeing a 15% growth in membership over the last two years. Growth is coming particularly within the social care sector.
UNISON has successfully secured over £100 million for NHS staff through its Pay Fair for Patient Care campaign.
An update was shared regarding a Court of Appeal case, Hewston v Ofsted, where a UNISON member was dismissed for brushing rain off a child’s head. Ofsted is contemplating an appeal to the Supreme Court.
A disabled delegate was concerned at the lack of official communications made by UNISON on the International Day of Disabled People. Undertakings were given to remedy this. The Communications sub-committee of the Policy Development & Campaigns Committee had not met for some time, and this will be rectified. The chair of PDCC has asked for quarterly meetings to be established for 2025.
Concerns about the Edinburgh Conference venue were raised and the plans to mitigate these at future bookings were described e.g. lift stewarding, and so on.
The impact of Employer’s NI on public sector employers, particularly in Adult Social Care which manages multiple contracts with external care providers, was raised. Assurances were given by officers that meetings had been held with ministers to underline UNISON’s concerns about this issue and local government funding generally.
Presidential Team Report
The presidential team gave a report to the meeting:
UNISON President Steve North spoke at a Stop the War meeting held in London outlining UNISON’s continued support for the campaign and UNISON’s demands for an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages, a two-state political solution, suspension of arm sales to Israel and the prosecution of war crimes in international law.
In October, Salford City Council became the first to sign up to the Migrant Care Workers Charter. This was a proud moment for Steve and Julia Mwaluke, Vice-President, who are both officers at Salford City branch.
Between October and December, the presidential team attended the Disabled Members conference in Brighton, the LGBT+ conference in Edinburgh and Young Members Conference in Swansea.
Lyn-Marie O’Hara, Vice-President, attended the Scottish Care Conference in Glasgow in November. The event was the first of its kind, due to the fantastic level of campaigning and organising going on in this sector.
In November, Steve met with participants in UNISON’s Seacole Programme for Black Staff. The Seacole participants commented positively on the support they have received from the NEC but are asking us and the General Secretariat to do more to ensure commitment to racial diversity at all levels of the union is mandated from the top down through all regions and departments.
Organising update
This was introduced by Andrea Egan, chair of the Development & Organisation Committee of the NEC.
Net membership growth was reported to the NEC of 40,667 (as at 25th November). This represents 3.3% net growth so far in the year and is unprecedented. The contribution of the Organising to Win strategy has been key.
Activist recruitment of +3,975 was recruited, which seems likely to surpass 2023 growth.
One delegate from the North West commented that UNISON needs to quickly adopt systems to report its organising wins and industrial action wins in cash terms. Other unions report their wins in cash terms and this is considered to be effective.
Industrial Action
The NEC sent out messages of solidarity to striking members across the country, including members from Livv Housing in Knowsley, North West region. It was reported that the Industrial Action Committee agreed to additional resources to support the Livv Housing striking workers.
In November, Steve and Julia were able to lend support to striking workers in Greater Manchester Mental Health branch, as well as striking Park Homes care workers in their own branch in Salford.
Finance update
The meeting was presented with a positive financial report which gave details of UNISON’s accounts for the first 10 months of the year to 31st October 2024.
Subscription income is significantly ahead of budget.
The net result is a surplus at this point in the year compared to a budgeted deficit, which is obviously good news and to be welcomed.
The budget for 2025 was presented and was unanimously passed.
The chair of the Finance and Resource Management Committee of the NEC, Dan Sartin, after giving the finance report took questions:
On the rise in employers’ NI, which branches who employ staff would have to pick up, but the impact of this would be monitored.
That the Finance Committee is looking at the issues of the Band K subs rate, increasingly conscious that this band contains a growing number of our members on a wide range of salary points.
That the Finance Committee is overseeing a number of ‘Invest to Save’ initiatives, the most recent of which was the adoption at the previous Committee meeting of a regional accommodation strategy.
It was reported by the chair that UNISON will continue to use the ACC Liverpool for conferences after successfully contesting the venue’s hosting of an arms fair. This resulted in a commitment by ACC Liverpool not to hold such events again and to adopt an ethical bookings policy in line with UNISON’s. The venue undertook not to repeat such bookings and if it was ever in doubt, to approach UNISON for advice before agreeing bookings in future.
This was seen as a considerable win for the union, and the NEC looked forward to maintaining its relationship with the city for our events into the future.
Other key issues
Race Discrimination Enquiry
NEC members received updates on the union’s race discrimination inquiry and engaged in extensive discussions concerning efforts to combat racism.
The Review’s recommendations had been agreed by consensus, and included plans for challenging racism training expected to roll out in early 2025, a review of the Race Protocol, and a review of the union’s complaints procedures.
The General Secretary would be working with the Presidential Team to develop an Implementations Plan.
The chair of the Services to Members Committee of the NEC, Mark Wareham, commented also that his Committee’s work would be relevant to many of the recommendations, including its work on a review of our Legal Services.
Zane’s Law
UNISON will be meeting with Keir Starmer to urge him to make time to legislate for Zane’s Law.
An honorary life membership will be awarded to Zane’s parents as agreed at NDC 2024 during which the Zane’s Law motion was passed.
COP29
A report was received from Tony Wright, chair of the Policy Development & Campaigns Committee, who attended COP29 as a delegate in Baku, Azerbaijan.
South Korea
A statement from UNISON was agreed regarding the recent declaration of martial law by the president of South Korea. This statement can be found on the UNISON national website.