Unison trade union bad advice

[Tomcat1]

Anyone else out there who has or know people who have had poor or no support from Unison trade union?

Do you have another rep at work you can speak to? We have two main unions at our place and I much preferred talking to the rep from the other union.

Way too late for that.

Try contacting the Union HQ. They will have staff who can assist you if you aren't having any luck with a local rep.

What is it you feel they aren't supporting you with?

Ha! Been there, done that.

So, who else out there has experiencing problems with Unison?

NC

Unison got me a payout of nearly £70,000 after disability discrimination.

I am enternally grateful to them. I literally owe them my life as I was suicidal. I am now a member of their branch and help where I can.

What I will say is that you can get good reps, and bad reps. You can ask to speak to regional officers if you aren't happy with your workplace rep but at the same time there are members who misunderstand the purpose of the union too.

Members who have really petty disputes or expect to get off scott free for mistakes.

Also people fail to realise that you cannot get support with something that started before you joined or within 4/6 weeks of joining. This is to stop members joining just for legal help then leaving the union a week later or something.

If you aren't happy with your union - volunteer with the branch and help make change or even better, be more realistic about what a union does.

Unison would have happily sat by and watched me lose my job! There was a nationwide restructuring of my role which effectively meant my post would no longer exist. A new post was created, woth a new job description and qualification requirements. The posts were to be advertised internally on a local basis first and would go external only if no internal candidate was successful. My colleague did not meet the new requirements, so applied for redundancy. About a week later, she requested a meeting with management where she told them she was pregnant and on union advice was withdrawing her redundancy applicaion since the union had told her that as a pregnant woman, she was automatically entitled to be offered the new post regardless of the fact she did not meet the qualification requirements and was not prepared to go to college to get them. I spoke to my Unison rep and the Unison helpline and was told that they would support a pregnant woman REGARDLESS OF THE LEGAL POSITION every time. They basically told me I was on my own. In the end, it was the legal team from my employer who helped me by pointing out that in a genuine redundancy situation, where there is no suitable alternative, a pregnant woman can be made redundant and that this was one such situation.
I have also sat on disciplinary panels where the Unison rep has done their client more harm than good, including one where their advice lost the client their job.
The only reason I pay my fee now, is in case I ever need to use their legal services.

Yes ! Union rep turned out was big pals with HR Business Partner (spent a lot of time in the same meetings no doubt!)
Talked me into compromising when in hindsight, and with a different Rep I’d have been a lot more successful.