The union has agreed to a longer timetable for implementing changes to the political fund required by the Trade Union Act.
The Act requires UNISON and other unions with political funds to ask members to opt in and pay a higher amount for political fund membership when they join the union. Currently members who do not wish to pay the political fund opt out.
The union had anticipated needing to bring rule changes to the national delegate conference this June to comply with the Act. It is now planned to bring the changes to the 2018 conference instead.
The decision was recommended to a special meeting of the general political fund committee, and to a recalled Labour Link forum, on 30 and 31 January respectively by the joint political fund working group, made up of the chairs and vice chairs of the GPF and Labour Link, the chair of the NEC finance and resources committee and the general secretary.
Both political fund bodies noted that the TUC executive committee had written to unions suggesting the need for joint movement-wide approach to introducing the changes.
It was also noted that the government itself was under pressure from Labour MPs and its own backbenchers to adopt a more realistic timetable.
The responses to the joint political fund working group consultation, which closed on 24 January, also revealed a need for more discussion and debate about the way forward.
The consultation responses demonstrated near consensus that the union needed to keep the opt-in as simple as possible for new members, and said that harmonisation of political fund contribution rates would help in this regard.
However, on other questions, such as how the union can best encourage people to pay a top-up to cover the union’s political work, there was a clear sense that more work needed to be done.
The political fund working group is looking into how the longer lead-in period can be used to undertake some pilot projects and further consultations across the union.