- Conference
- Lesbian,Gay,Bisexual & Transgender Conference 2005
- Date
- 29 July 2005
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes with extreme concern the increasing push from employers to undertake workforce monitoring in relation to sexual orientation.
This monitoring by some employers is ‘outing’ staff as this is not an anonymous process. It would appear the reason behind this is to obtain figures on how many LGBT employees they have; we would seriously question the rationale for the requirement of this information.
Conference welcomes the recent updated advice on this issue from the TUC of which a snapshot was published in the ‘Out in UNISON’ magazine Spring 05 issue, and a condensed version in the NDC 2005 edition of ‘Log Out’.
Conference notes that Police Staff have recently come under increasing pressures from their employer to undertake this monitoring. This follows a request from the Gay Police Association (GPA) to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).
A group was formed by the GPA and ACPO, with the exclusion of UNISON, to take this forward. UNISON repeatedly asked for a place on this group as the monitoring would seriously impact on Police Staff; for this to be refused is unacceptable.
Conference further notes that a similar situation has arisen in a North West Local Government branch where this data was to be linked to an employees work number and therefore personal records. This is being vehemently challenged.
Conference instructs the LGBT Committee to:
1.Undertake an audit of what employers are doing in this area via branch officers;
2.Issue updated UNISON advice and guidance to all branches, regions and self-organised groups;
3.Campaign against the linking of such data to personally identifiable records;
4.Obtain from branches experiences of both good and bad practice and obtain any policies in this area.