Coronavirus – helping you in the Eastern region

In line with government advice, UNISON is temporarily changing the way we work – but we’re still 100% committed to supporting you, our members, when you need us.

Covid-19 is throwing up unprecedented workplace challenges and everyone’s employment rights are changing almost by the day.

Many of you — in health, social care and elsewhere — have raised concerns about the levels of personal protective equipment available. UNISON has set up a dedicated PPE alert so you can let us know what’s happening at work and we can raise it with ministers.

PPE alert

If you have any questions about your rights at work, please check UNISON’s national website for the latest guidance. It is updated regularly and has special sections for education, healthcare, social care, local government and police staff.

Your rights at work

Government guidelines

UNISON’s There For You charity is also on hand for any members who are struggling financially because of the pandemic.

Financial help

If you’ve still got questions or need more specific advice, please get in touch with us by clicking the link below.

Like everyone, we’re having to quickly adapt to the way we work because of workplace closures and our team is receiving a high volume of enquiries but we should get back to you by the end of the next working day.

Get in touch


Legal help

Our legal support is also changing. You can read all about it on UNISON’s national website, but we can summarise here.

Members with issues relating directly to their work should still go direct to their branch, but to speed things up, we have adapted the case form to make it more streamlined.

If members have any concerns about PPE in their workplace, these should also be raised directly with their branch.

UNISON has set up a new direct phone number to our legal services provider Thompsons to make it quick and easy to access our wider range of legal services. The UNISON line is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 0808 252 2783.

But please check the website for what help you need.

Legal support


Say thank you

We also want to say a big thank you to all the key workers keeping us going through this crisis.

You can download a poster for social media or to display in your window.

Download poster