Most UNISON branch officers, stewards and safety reps will negotiate with employers at some time.
It is how you protect and promote the interests of your members and create fairness and equality at work.
These in-depth guides, along with our training courses and explanation of the process, give you the tools you need for effective negotiating and bargaining with employers.
Guides
Key bargaining issues
Pay
Contract types
Other aspects of terms and conditions
- Bullying
- Harassment
- The disclosure and barring scheme: checking on a worker’s criminal record
- Collective redundancy
- Hot desking
- Lifelong learning
- Mpox (monkeypox)
- New technology in the workplace
- Prevent Duty
- Probationary periods
- Stress
- Terminal illness
- Victimisation on union grounds
- Violence at work
- Whistleblowing
- Working alone
- Workforce reorganisation
- Workload
Bargaining arrangements
Procurement
Equality
- Challenging racism in the workplace
- Disability leave
- Disability – proving disability and reasonable adjustments
- Domestic violence and abuse
- Equality and diversity
- English language requirement
- Ending violence against women and girls
- EU workers
- Gender pay reporting
- Intersex equality
- Lesbian, gay and bisexual workers’ rights
- Menopause
- Mental health
- Negotiating for race equality – bullying and harassment
- Negotiating for race equality – ethnicity pay gap
- Negotiating for race equality – disciplinary procedures
- Negotiating for race equality – insecure work
- Negotiating for race equality – performance management and career progression
- Negotiating for race equality – recruitment and selection
- Negotiating for race equality – redundancy
- Older workers
- Pregnancy rights
- Pregnancy health & safety toolkit
- Reasonable adjustments
- Sexual harassment
- Tackling hate crime and hate incidents
- Transgender workers’ rights
- Women’s reproductive health issues
COVID-19
Living alongside COVID-19: workplace issues (updated October 2023)
Bargaining to support those at higher risk from COVID-19
Bargaining to support those with long COVID or post-COVID-19 syndrome
Working from home and hybrid working – a bargaining guide and model policy
Dealing with online (virtual) disciplinary, capability and grievance hearings
Model templates
Our model templates can help you when negotiating and bargaining with managers or employers on behalf of UNISON members. (Model templates open as Word documents.)
- Model appraisal procedure
- Model apprenticeship agreement
- Model annual leave agreement
- Model anti-racism policy
- Model capability procedure
- Model carers’ policy
- Model disciplinary procedure
- Model equality and diversity policy
- Model equality impact assessment flowchart
- Model family leave and pay policy (maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental leave, parental leave)
- Model facility time agreement
- Model flexible working agreement
- Model grievance procedure
- Model homeworking and hybrid working survey and agreement
- Model learning agreement
- Model mental health policy
- Model migrant workers support and retention policy
- Model organisational change agreement
- Model overpayment and underpayment of pay policy
- Model pay claim
- Model pay survey
- Model pregnancy loss policy
- Model procurement agreement
- Model recognition agreement
- Model sickness absence agreement
- Model trans equality policy
- Model violence at work policy
- Model whistleblowing policy
- Model workload agreement
- Model workload survey
- Model workplace policy on domestic violence and abuse
Reports
Reports commissioned by UNISON that provide analysis in support of bargaining and negotiating activity. (Reports open as PDFs.)
- Consumer Price Indices in the UK – full report
- Consumer Price Indices in the UK – summary
- Statisticians Arguments in Favour of the RPI
- Facility time – full report
- Facility time – summary
- From pay squeeze to staffing crisis
- Outsourcing the cuts
- Pay premium
- Pay progression in the public sector