Regional Organiser – South East region

UNISON Torbay Health; Woking; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 52,000; Full time

Job summary

UNISON is seeking a Regional Organiser to lead day-to-day operations across the South East Region, including support for local branches, activists, and casework handling. You will guide training needs, coach stewards, and oversee a small team of organisers while leading negotiations and representing members with stakeholders.

The role requires strong advocacy, strategic project management, and the ability to influence at multiple levels across the union and with employers.

Qualifications

• Understanding of our movement, its pressures and drivers, with a passion for equality.
• Commitment to organising and building worker power.
• Ability to provide guidance on branch duties (membership density, activist base, restructuring, casework).
• Knowledge of key employment law and changes affecting members.
• Strong understanding of political landscape and impact on approach.
• Ability to manage a team of staff and lead by example.
• Excellent communication and advocacy skills with negotiation experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead negotiations and represent members individually and collectively.
• Guide, support and develop local branches and activists to strengthen workplace organisation.
• Identify activist training needs and provide coaching to stewards and branch officers.
• Manage a small team of area/local organisers and oversee casework processes.
• Build relationships with stakeholders and influence at all levels.

Skills

People leadership

Negotiation

Stakeholder engagement

Team management

Coaching & mentoring

Advocacy & representation

Job description

The role

Our 1,200 staff work across 12 UK regions and our national centre in London. Regional offices support the work of local branches, helping to represent, recruit, organise and retain members – as well as making key contributions in areas such as campaigning, strategies for negotiation and bargaining, and actions against discrimination.

As a Regional Organiser, you’ll be playing a hands‑on, day‑to‑day leadership role, as well as acting as an advocate of the union. Guiding, supporting and developing local branches and activists to ensure the strongest possible workplace organisation, you’ll identify activist training and development needs, provide coaching and mentoring to stewards and branch officers, and manage a small team of area/local organisers. Additionally, you will lead negotiations, represent members individually and collectively, and help branches to develop effective systems and processes for handling casework.

The person

What we’re looking for...

• An understanding of our movement, its pressures and drivers, with a passion for equality.
• A commitment to organising and building worker power.
• Ability to provide advice and guidance on the effective organisation of key branch duties (e.g. maintaining membership density, activist base enhancement, supporting employers with major restructuring, maintaining confidence in union ability to influence outcomes, oversight of case work and reducing response times).
• Good knowledge of key employment law, including developing case law and upcoming changes that may affect members.
• A strong understanding of the political landscape and how this might impact our approach.
• Ability to manage a team of staff, with a willingness to collaborate and to lead by example.
• Excellent communication and advocacy skills, with proven ability to manage high level negotiations and representation of cases in challenging situations.
• Ability to build and strengthen relationships with key stakeholders, ability to influence and engage at all levels e.g. activists, democratic bodies/committees.
• Strategic project management experience, including budget management. Ability to develop strategies and solutions to solve complex problems.

Please refer to the job description and person specification for full requirements for this role.

The South East Region aims to represent and reflect the entire public sector in the South East, we support and encourage applications from underrepresented groups, including those from Black, Asian and non-white backgrounds. This ensures our union truly reflects our members, the community, and public sector workers, reaching those who need us most. In UNISON, ‘Black’ – with a capital B – is used to indicate people with a shared history. ‘Black’ is used in a broad political and inclusive sense to describe people in the UK who have suffered from colonialism and enslavement in the past and continue to experience racism and diminished opportunities in today’s society. This includes people of African, Caribbean, Asian, Arab, and other heritage.

This is a field‑based role and whilst we aim to allocate work to reduce travel time, you will need to be able to travel in and around the South East Region, including to our Woking Office where our regional centre is based as required and occasionally to London and other regions of the UK for training, meetings, or other purposes. The South East region covers a large area including Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Southampton, Buckinghamshire, and beyond.