TUC Equality Audit 2026
Union equality audits
Five more unions than in 2022 said they had carried out their own equality audit since the TUC commenced conducting equality audits in 2003.
Examples of equality audits included:
- Community produces monthly reports on membership equality data and representative equality data, suggesting a regular monitoring cycle rather than full audits. As a result, the union has introduced strategic measures to increase the number of women and young worker reps.
- UNISON’s audits were linked directly to its Years of Different Equality Groups activities and informed measures to increase diversity in leadership roles for young, women, migrant, LGBT+, disabled and Black members.
- The RMT recently surveyed the engagement of Black and ethnic minority members (B&EMM) within the union.
- The PCS used equality statistics to inform gender pay gap reporting, gain Disability Confident employer status and establish an anti-racism taskforce.
- NAHT used audit findings to develop its EDI plan, improve data collection, create a discrimination protocol for officials, run a membership culture survey and launch an equality rep pilot.
Equality action plans
Twenty-two unions (54 per cent) said they have an equality action plan in place – no change on 2022. These included all six large unions (up from four in 2022), eight medium unions (up from seven) and eight small unions (down from 11).
Unions generally mentioned overseeing the progress of plans rather than formal evaluation. Most rely on committee oversight and regular reporting. A smaller group, particularly UNISON, The NUJ, CSP, NAHT and the Musicians’ Union, have begun to use metrics or trend data to assess whether equality action plans are actually delivering change. The NUJ describes three parts to its work: outputs (reports, policies, training), impacts (surveys and participation rates) and outcomes (statistical monitoring and casework data).
Community produces monthly reports on membership equality data and representative equality data, suggesting a regular monitoring cycle rather than full audits. As a result, the union has introduced strategic measures to increase the number of women and young worker reps.
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