NEC Report – Meeting of 9th February 2022
This report of the NEC meeting on 9th February seeks to inform members of the discussions in the meeting and decisions taken by the NEC. We are publishing it on Time For Real Change social media to ensure that it reaches the widest audience in the union. If members have any questions, please contact tfrc.unison@gmail.com.
******************************************
UNISON National President
Paul Holmes, President of Unison, was recently dismissed by his employer Kirklees Council. Unison’s solicitor and barrister have applied for an interim relief order, which if granted would require Kirklees Council to reinstate Paul’s contract of employment pending his appeal and any subsequent Employment Tribunal. Interim Relief orders are necessary to prevent a bad employer from refusing to reinstate a dismissed employee and instead paying a sum of compensation in lieu of reinstatement. For Unison barristers to have submitted this interim relief application, it demonstrates they believe a) that Paul’s case involves a prima facie case of trade union victimisation and b) that Paul’s case stands a good chance of winning.
It was agreed by the NEC to exercise its discretion, available to it under Rule C.2.4.2, to declare that Paul Holmes is entitled to continue to hold office in the union. For clarity, Paul would continue to hold all offices that he held in the union at the point of his dismissal.
The meeting heard that this included Paul’s role as branch secretary, as Kirklees branch members had re-elected Paul earlier that week.
Caution was expressed about information circulating on social media which could be libellous.
The motion was carried 34 for, 23 against with 1 abstention.
The NEC’s 6 Resolutions
There was a motion taken to move an amended version of the resolutions carried at the NEC in October. The alternative wording arose from exchanges between John Hendy (pro-bono) and Michael Ford (both are QCs).
The motion left 3 of the 6 motions as they were, with two of these having additional clarity provided. 2 of the 6 were replaced with revised wording. 1 was withdrawn as it was decided that the rules already provided a satisfactory route to deal with it.
After debate, the NEC agreed to the motion by 37 votes to 25. The NEC has now settled the matter of these clarifications to existing rules.
The general secretary said she would see how the resolutions were put into practice and would take her own legal advice on matters she considered were ultra vires in practice.
NEC procedures
There was some discussion about how things get onto NEC agenda. There is no clear process currently, and has never been one, as the NEC has not standing orders of its own. This matter would come back to the NEC.
Motions to National Delegate Conference
The NEC debated and then agreed and passed as UNISON policy all the motions on the following topics:
From Development & Organisation Committee
1. Organising Framework
2. Property [to hold a review of UNISON property]
3. Insourcing [to review and potentially insource a range of services UNISON itself currently outsources]
4. Marketing: how UNISON identifies itself and portrays itself to members
5. Building the Union, Organising for Our Future
6. Combating the rise of discrimination and harassment through education
From International Committee
7. Global Vaccine Inequality
8. Supporting Dismissed Sri Lankan PPE Workers
From Policy Development and Campaigns Committee
9. Learning the Right Lessons from COVID-19
10. Tackling the Cost-of-Living Crisis
11. Worker and Trade Union Rights
12. Migrant Workers on the COVID-19 Frontline
13. Post Glasgow Cop 26 – Decarbonising UK Public Services
14. Campaigning for a National Care Service
From Services to Members Committee
15. Legal support for our members and activists: getting it right
The NEC submits 12 motions to Conference, so:
Motion 1 (Organising Framework) and Motion 4 (Marketing: how UNISON identifies itself and portrays itself to members) were agreed to be subsumed within Motion 5 (Building the Union, Organising for Our Future).
Motion 2 (Property) was not prioritised for Conference but was agreed to be implemented from this NEC so was not needed to go to conference.
A good debate on all the motions was held. The NEC will be bringing an exciting programme of motions to conference in June, which provide for real change within UNISON itself, as well as looking outwards.
Motions were carried which call for a full review of the union’s legal services contract so legal services to branches and members can be improved. It was also recognised by the NEC that if we are to ‘build our union’ and ‘organise for the future’ (Motion 5) we require a fundamental review about how we position ourselves to members because successful ‘organising’ may not be compatible with presenting ourselves as an insurance policy for members at work (Motion 4).
15 members of the NEC voted against the NEC adopting a policy position of reviewing the services Unison currently itself outsources with a view to insourcing them, though these 15 did not stop a majority of the NEC from agreeing to bring this motion to conference.
Rule Changes to National Delegate Conference
The most significant of these was a rule change proposed from the union’s Staffing Committee which if approved by conference would ensure a significant expansion of Unison democracy.
The rule change would ensure elections for Assistant General Secretary, Regional Secretary, and Heads of Service Group positions, as existing postholders retired or otherwise left their roles.
This will no doubt lead to lively debate at conference and delegates will welcome the chance to consider such a significant change and how it would change the union.
Industrial Action Fund
The NEC agreed to increase strike pay from: £25 per day from day 4, to: £50 a day from day 1. This has now received its complete sign off and approval, after being agreed previously by the Industrial Action Committee and Finance Committee.
The Industrial Action Committee can agree to increase this where it might be necessary (e.g. if a section of members were asked to take strike action on behalf of a larger group). The NEC’s rationale is to encourage more successful disputes, by reducing the financial sacrifice we expect from members and particularly members who are already low paid. This decision took force from 9th February, 2022.
There is also a plan to review Unison’s industrial action processes to remove any unnecessary blocks as many branches find it can take many months to get to ballot currently. It was agreed to let all Unison members know of this decision immediately.
Items not reached
Despite having a six-hour time slot scheduled for its meeting, lots of the NEC’s agenda was not reached. This included the general secretary’s report, which the NEC was keen to hear but the general secretary did not feel there was enough time to do it justice by the time we reached it, and a motion on providing access to financial information to the Chair of Finance was also not reached. It was expressed that the NEC needed plans to have another meeting soon to deal with missed business.
******************************************