NEC Report, meeting held on 8 April 2026
1. General Secretary’s report
Our General Secretary, Andrea Egan, presented her comprehensive written report to the NEC. It is notable that in a marked changed from her predecessor, Andrea does not use a lot of NEC time speaking to her report but leaves it as presented. However, the NEC does still spend a lot of time taking points and questions from the floor. Included in Andrea’s report was work she has done or to progress:
Engaging with staff.
Fighting the far right.
Implementing the recommendations from the race discrimination enquiry, including establishing an in-house legal advice line for branches on migrant worker rights.
Lobbying government and MPs over the removal of the ballot threshold and migrant workers’ rights, including meetings with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Education Minister.
Securing a review of the HMRC mileage rate from the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Establishing a Strategic Manifesto Delivery Group, to map Andrea’s manifesto commitments against existing union policy and drive forward promised changes.
Year of Green Activity.
Covid-19 inquiry.
Employment Rights Act implementation.
Amongst points or questions from the floor, included the following:
Thanks to the General Secretary from NEC East Midlands member Tom Barker for support from Andrea for his branch’s successful ballot regarding his employer’s attack on him and the union. Her intervention had a huge impact on members and helped win the ballot.
That the General Secretary was raising at every meeting with Labour Ministers the need to remove the 50% ballot threshold and de-link it from electronic balloting measures.
Solidarity with the BMA from NEC Health member Jordan Rivera in their dispute with government and unhappiness at Wes Streeting’s briefings to the media and threat to remove training posts.
NEC Black member rep Antonia Bright welcoming the news on the in-house legal service for migrant workers but querying the timeline for this (answer, recruitment was currently stuck with an internal ‘TAG’ group).
2. Presidential team report
The written report on their recent work included reference to TUC Women’s Conference, TUC General Council, Year of Green Activity, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), and a visit to the United Nations in New York, USA in March.
3. Political Fund Rule Change
A financial assessment on the impact of the new rules that were adopted at the February NEC meeting had revealed at the eleventh hour that the rules the NEC had agreed only weeks previously would actually put the Union at risk of losing annual income in region of £7.5 million. Such a loss of annual income would have a devastating impact on the Union’s finances.
A new paper was presented to the NEC. It was agreed to suspend the new ‘opt out’ model and return, at least temporarily, to the previous ‘opt in’ model i.e. an additional 5% political fund levy payment on top of the general fund payment as per the scales in the Rulebook. A working group of NEC Committee Chairs and senior officers has been meeting and will continue to look at the detail of the new law and how to implement any changes to enable better access to our political funds without it leading to a disastrous financial loss of in our General Fund.
Mark Wareham, NEC member for the South West, raised that it was regrettable that we were in a position of so rapidly having to backtrack on the previously agreed change given the fact that a financial assessment was not previously forthcoming at the February meeting.
NEC member for the South East Dan Sartin, raised concern that at the time of the February NEC meeting and its previous decision he had pointed out then that nowhere near enough time had been allocated for consideration of the matter and that the reports the NEC received were inadequately brief and without detail. This had contributed to the wrong decision being taken, as the NEC was effectively given no choice but to accept the word of Officers in February and could not scrutinise the matter. He also asked why the Union had not picked up the dangerous financial consequences of the Employment Rights Act in the regard of political funds, when we had been lobbying for the repeal of the previous Trade Union Act since 2016, had had many meetings with Ministers during the design and creation of the Employment Rights Act (and indeed were quick to claim credit for it), and had the opportunity of a formal statutory consultation to consider its impacts. The response given was that measures on political funds “came out the blue”.
Vice-President James Anthony agreed that the whole situation was “embarrassing” and that UNISON must learn lessons from this episode and get it right going forwards.
For the second consecutive meeting, the NEC approved the Recommendations from officers on political funds, this time to avoid financial disaster. It was agreed that lessons must be learned and that future reports on this subject would be more detailed and provide time for consideration.
4. National Delegate Conference 2026
The NEC went through policy recommendations from its Committees on Motions submitted to NDC and voted on a number of proposed amendments from NEC Committees.
There were debates on:
Motion 8 on Retired Members was debated with 29 in favour, 14 against and 7 abstentions on requesting the branch to Remit.
A proposal to support Motion 15 on “Speaking in a Personal Capacity”, noting that this was the third time that this motion was being presented to Conference having fallen twice previously. NEC member Libby Nolan felt that this motion if passed would make UNISON “an embarrassment to the trade union movement”. Mark Wareham (South West) stated it was unnecessary as UNISON already has plenty of tools to address issues flagged in the motion, such as our public policy record, democratic accountability and our Rulebook and code of best practice. The NEC resolved to support Motion 15 however, by 24 votes to 17, with 10 abstentions (a majority of only 7 despite the Development and Organisation Committee having a collective responsibility binding 22 NEC members to vote in favour or not against).
Motion 34 on decriminalising sex work – it was agreed to leave this decision to Conference by 34 to 5 with some abstentions.
Motion 41 on “Organising for a Bailout for Public Services – Action please!” was agreed to ‘Seek withdrawal’ from the branch (University of Brighton) given the Union’s programme of action on the issues described within the motion. It was stated that a campaign would be launched soon and that companies were being invited to pitch for the work imminently.
Motion 84 “Becoming a Greener Union”. There was a proposed amendment from the NEC’s Policy Committee for the 2030 net zero commitment the branch had proposed for UNISON itself to be amended to 2050, due to ‘practical considerations’ that UNISON could not adhere to or should not be expected to adhere to due to its relative lack of importance within the overall economy. There were speeches against the Policy Committee’s proposal, but it was approved by 27 to 9 with 3 abstentions. Another amendment put forward by NEC member Jim Morris-Knight, who represents Water, Environment & Transport members, for UNISON to become a carbon neutral organisation by 2030 and net zero by 2035 was rejected by 24 to 20 with 1 abstention.
The NEC’s position on Rule amendments was agreed. No officers were available at the NEC meeting to explain the consequences of a series of sex-based Rule changes submitted by the Housing Associations branch, so the NEC had little choice but to agree to the Development & Organisation’s Committee to ‘Defer’ its decision.
The NEC’s priorities for Conference were agreed. A vote was taken to move three motions into the NEC’s 12 priorities:
M4, Oppose and Fight Trade Union Victimisation – Protect Organising Reps! National Young Members' Forum
M44, Defend Our Right to Strike! North West Region
M 62, Organise for Legal Protection for Gender Identity and Trans Rights, National LGBT+ Committee
Passionate speeches were made on behalf of these 3 motions receiving priority. NEC members were challenged to say what Motions from the 12 recommended they would de-prioritise, which they did. However, the NEC voted by majority for its own 12 motions to be prioritised by 29 votes to 19, with 1 abstention.
The Annual Report for publication at Conference was agreed. One NEC member from the South East, asked for a section to be added on work done by the Union to support branches who employ staff, as this is known to be a priority for branches but in the long annual report there was no mention of it. They also asked for the section on the Member Engagement Project to be expanded, as there was little detail on a project of pivotal importance to the Union and which had received investment of at least £7.5 million since 2022. Both additions were agreed to be made, in order to aid transparency to members.
Conference arrangements were discussed including a proposal to invite Angela Rayner MP to speak on workers’ rights. A lengthy debate ensued which included concerns raised over Labour’s Anti-Trans rights and Anti-Migrant positions as a party and government, Angela Rayner’s position vis-à-vis Birmingham Council’s refuse dispute, and that such a visit could well coincide with a Labour Leadership challenge and we would be seen to be picking sides and would also be giving away any leverage we had to take UNISON policy into a potential Rayner-led government by conferring our support at this early stage. The NEC voted to invite Angela Rayner MP to our conference by 31 votes to 23.
5. Organising Report
Year-to-date membership was reported to be in growth by +7,000 members (0.54%). This is down on previous years’ growth but still of course welcome. It was pointed out that since 2022, UNISON has grown by 8%.
6. Bargaining report
The NEC received a report from across the sectors of various collective bargaining issues, including our largest single bargaining annual event, the NJC pay claim.
7. Staffing Committee
Concern was raised that the Staffing Report, though it covered two items of great significance, was exceptionally brief. The report on the pay dispute over the staff trade unions’ pay claim for 2026 was said to be misleading by omission and did not give the NEC the full picture it needed. The report on the staffing review, with a decision due soon with financial and staffing consequences, was only a single line. This had implications for transparency and decision-making.
The Committee Chair committed to a fuller report being available after ACAS talks the following week had taken place, and to transparency ahead of decisions on the Staffing Review.
8. Date of next meeting
Was noted to be on Wednesday 20th May 2026