UNISON Reviews 697

There has been a decline in quality.

My first union rep Ed was brilliant and when above and beyond, he’s now been promoted to a new role.

My new union rep I saw a start difference in quality. Now that I’ve exhausted the grievance and appeal process my union and union rep have said they’ll no longer offer me advice. Yet I am still off sick and being told by work I need to return to a team and manager who have bullied and excluded me.

At this stage unison are a waste of money and I have learnt enough about the grievance process that if I were to go through it again, I could do so myself.

The union are very risk avoidant so even the slightest chance you won’t win at tribunal (only 22% of cases do) then they won’t support you at tribunal. They also missed the key areas of my complaint.

Their advice was simply to find another job (in this economy?).

It also took over a month to get an advisor which is ridiculous and the first thing out their mouth, was to check if my salary had increased so the could increase my membership fee.

I was treated very poorly and unfairly by Unison. Rather than providing support, they sided with my employer, which further impacted my mental health. It took approximately a year for the complaint I then submitted to be addressed, during which time I was left without adequate support.

The individual involved did not take accountability for their behaviour. As there were no recordings of the phone conversations, the situation became one of my word against theirs, and my account was not given consideration.

Throughout the process, their approach was rude and dismissive. I was told that I should be grateful to have a job instead of raising legitimate concerns, which was inappropriate and undermining.

In addition, my employer breached a contract after I had already sought support from Unison regarding this issue, yet no effective assistance was provided.

Overall, this was an extremely disappointing experience, and I did not receive the support expected from a union. I would not recommend their services.

This has been one of the least helpful services I have dealt with. I raised three separate requests for assistance on three different occasions, and in every case I was told that the issues pre-dated my membership. While that may have been true in one instance, in the other two cases the matters only became significant problems well after I had joined.

The overall impression I was left with was that any request for support would simply be dismissed on the basis that the issue had originated before my membership began. I was also extremely concerned that one of their representatives accused me of trying to “play tricks” in order to obtain assistance, which I found both inappropriate and unprofessional.

I ultimately decided to cancel my membership. Unfortunately, that process has also proved unnecessarily difficult. I was informed that while they could cancel the membership itself, I would need to deal directly with payroll to stop the membership fee deductions. Payroll, however, has stated that Unison must issue a “Stop Request,” while Unison claims it cannot do so because of GDPR. This contradictory and obstructive process has only reinforced my view that the service is more focused on collecting fees than providing meaningful support. I would not recomend this service to anyone.

Don't join this union, you are wasting money. Representation is terribly poor as the reps are in bed with senior management to secure facilities time and perks.
I was offered zero support and my rep sided with everything senior management dictated. When I left unison I was told I could make a complaint but let's face it, there was no point as unison management were
hardly likely to side with me.

Wasn’t sure if this was the correct UNISON, the Union. But saw the Poor rating of 1 Star an knew it was them.
Don’t bother they are hopeless 😩
Go join YOURMATE Union instead!

Really bad. Was a member for decades. Left work and when I resumed, joined Unison again. I had a horrible workplace bullying issue connected to needing remote working due to cancer treatment. My employer was breaking the law re reasonable adjustments. I contacted Unison who said they couldn't represent me because I had rejoined after the issue began, which wasn't correct. Unison showed zero empathy, they couldn't have cared less, they would not represent me and I had to do it alone.
They only want your money.
They will do whatever they can to not represent you.
They are slow in their response, such as getting back to me when things like meeting deadlines had already passed.
I wonder what right they have to accept our membership and money straight away but refuse representation for 'existing' issues.
People seek help when an issue has arisen, not usually beforehand!! We don't pay a solicitor 'just in case', we appoint one when a problem arises, so how is Unison getting away with this, and isn't it time for the members to speak up and get some control over 'our' union?

Asked my union representative to help me after coming back to work after my operation (brain tumour) but representative was more interested in keeping mangers happy and ended up getting me less pay and when i compained to union area manger he didnt want to know and just not answering my messages
Gave union representative all my specialist/hospital/doctors records to help me with my case and didnt even use them and when i asked for all them back they didnt even have them so im missing lots of important personal information
Now there refusing to respond to my emails messages phonecalls stay well away

Unison is just a waste of money!! Unprofessional! They are supposed to help and safeguard the rights of the employees but they only side the employers!!

Terrible service and poor support. I have emailed several times with questions and have been ignored every time. It seems when you have an issue no one wants to advise how to proceed and support. Waste of money each month as may as well be on your own! .

bill hassan is my rep who is currently helping me deal with a sexual harassment case at my workplace. he has been nothing short of amazing and has taught me so much about my rights in the workplace

i never thought i’d need a union and for the years i’ve been paying my membership, i quite honestly thought it would be a waste of money. however, the way bill has constantly advocated for me and made me aware of the legal aspect of my case is amazing

this is a tough one for me and i don’t think i’d have any chance of winning the case if it wasn’t for bill’s guidance and support. i can only thank him for everything he’s done to help me

Dear Bill Hassan,
Thank you sincerely for your outstanding support and expert advice during my redundancy concerns at Stonewater. Your deep knowledge of employment rights, professional guidance on zero-hours protections, and proactive help made all the difference amid recent staff changes.
I truly appreciate your commitment—it’s made a real impact on my confidence and next steps.
Best regards,
Martin Asante

Do not join under any circumstances put your money elsewhere I.e. GMB.

Terrible “service” when I asked for assistance my email was ignored for several months after paying in for years. They do not care about you if you have disabilities or any hardships (not disability friendly). Additionally when I requested my membership be cancelled and they stop taking money directly from my wages they then continued to take money out of my wage that month and refuse it refund it. It should be noted had I had a DD I could of instantly stopped it but yet they won’t refund me for a service they never provided that month. Terrible union. Have since joined GMB and positive experience with prompt responses and people who care, not to mention costs less. Unison are scammers and money grabbers.

A word of advice: You may want to contemplate canceling your membership, particularly if you are exclusively a bank member within the care industry, as they do not provide any assistance when needed.

I join Unison thinking that if I had a problem they could help me. I needed their help which led to a meeting with my boss only to be represented by my rep over video call. He said he couldn’t be there in person due to him living 2 hours away! Why is he representing an area he can’t get to? In the meeting I expected him to intervene if the meeting wasn’t fair but he was mostly mute. When he did speak all he could do was repeat policies that I already knew, he didn’t represent me at all. He seemed to be in complete agreement with my boss even though this meeting was for me to put my complaint forward. I wouldn’t waste your money with Unison as they are no help at all.

I hate to leave reviews and I am doing this from my partners account, but I felt the need to do this as I am disgusted in the service I recieved from salford unison so much I canceled my direct debit and will not carry on making anymore payments. They were completely unsympathetic and useless.

What a waste of money when you need actual help you wont find them at all they deserve 0 stars

After 20 years with unison i have cancelled my membership when i needed them recently it was more than difficult to get to speak to a rep. kept saying they would call and didn’t. absolutely abysmal service

Trade unions are not what they used to be, they will not help you or save your job. They will not offer any support or even be actively involved in any cases you may have ongoing.
As other people have said they are more interested in waving flags and aggressively silence women who disagree with them.

Steward did not want to know about my disabilities. Attended meeting and went against me in the meeting and told lies.

Contacted main office for support, lied to cover their arses. Put in a complaint, just lied repeatedly to avoid any responsibility. Their complaints process is an absolute joke.

Absolute scum bag company of liars that treats disabled people like dirt and inflicts harm on them. Avoid like the plague.

I would not describe them as a Union, more like a parasite.

Every time I had contacted them in the past, they were generally clueless on anything.

Asked unison for a legal matter regarding contractual hour.which I thought would need a legal person to look into.response was see your local shop steward.no disrespect to my local steward but I hope he's gemmed up on the law