- Conference
- 2011 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 21 October 2010
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes with concern the economic hardship public service cuts will have on women. Sixty five per cent of public sector workers are women and almost a quarter of working women are in public sector jobs. Women are also the greatest users of public services. With one in five women acting as carers for adult family members when day centres are being closed, home visits reduced and respite services withdrawn women bear the brunt. The closure of libraries, leisure centres, children’s centres and out of hours school clubs will all have a disproportionate impact on women. Community and voluntary organisations specifically set up to support women and which are predominately staffed by women are becoming increasingly under threat from cuts. These include vital services such as women’s advice centres, refuges and rape crisis centres.
Many public sector organisations are already outsourcing vital services to the private sector in so called value for money initiatives. Evidence has shown that women have suffered disproportionately by such initiatives as their pay and conditions have been cut. The rise in unemployment due to the recession is providing ammunition for the Government and employers, against implementing or enhancing equality provisions further or extending equality legislation. In times of austerity it is the equality projects and interventions that go first because they are not, as yet, imbedded in practice. We have already seen the coalition Government’s attempts to dilute the Single Equality Act – a clear indication of its lack of commitment to equality in the workplace.
The duty to carry out EIA’s has changed, with there now being no legal obligation to undertake Equality Impact Assessments as such. Organisations now have instead, a legal duty to pay ‘due regard’ to the elimination of discrimination. The law requires that this duty to pay ‘due regard’ be demonstrated in the decision making process. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) still recommends EIAs as best practice, however, if an organisation chooses not to undertake an EIA, then some alternative form of analysis which systematically assesses any adverse impact of a change in policy, procedure or practice will be required. By law an assessment must contain sufficient information to enable a public authority to show it has paid ‘due regard’ to the equality duties in its decision making and identify methods for mitigating or avoiding any adverse impact.
Equality Impact Assessments are a very powerful tool and union activists should ensure they are undertaken before any cuts to services are implemented.
Conference therefore instructs the National Women’s Committee to:
1)Ensure that branches and regions are aware of the changes to EIAs and that they are equipped with the arguments as to why an EIA is still the best way for showing ‘due regard’.
2)Circulate EHRC guidance on ‘Using the Equality Duties to make fair financial decisions.
3)Ensure branches and regions are trained and able to support members in completing Equality Impact Assessments
4)Continue, through Labour Link and the General Political Fund to press for the strengthening of equalities legislation
5)Encourage women to sign up to UNISON’s Million Voices campaign
6)Publicise, the Positively Public and NHS Together campaigns