- Conference
- 2012 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 1 January 2012
- Decision
- Carried
Conference is alarmed that employment rights are now firmly in the Coalition government’s sights for cutting as part of an alleged growth strategy for the Chancellor. This is rejected by Conference as making workers feel more insecure is both unfair, unequal and in fact decreases confidence in the economy.
Conference deplores the increasing use by employers of section 188 redundancy notices as a lever to launch swinging attacks on pay, term and conditions at work. Those attacks are having huge impact on equality at work, widening the gender pay gap, eroding protection and workers rights.
Conference is concerned that the scale of the government’s austerity measures, public spending cuts and attack on workers’ rights if left unchallenged would drive workers deeper into low pay, increase poverty and widen the gaps in inequality in society. This is undermining years of campaign work to eradicate the scourge of poverty and inequality in society.
Not content with Britain having the most restrictive laws on trade unions in Western Europe, the Coalition government, encouraged by the CBI, the Institute of Directors and right-wing pressure groups like the Taxpayers Alliance and Policy Exchange, are threatening still more draconian measures against trade unions.
Conference notes the wide range of possible threats to employment rights and access to justice under the guise of cutting ‘red tape’ include:
1) wider powers to reduce and strike out tribunal claims;
2) extending the qualifying period for unfair dismissal protection from one year to two years in April 2012;
3) ‘protected conversations’ on performance or retirement (which will allow employers, in certain circumstances, to say what they like to employees without having their words quoted back at them in tribunal proceedings);
4) the proposal for compensated no fault dismissal for firms with less than 10 employees;
5) new fees to take tribunal cases and increase use of judges sitting alone thus denying access to a full tribunal for unfair dismissal;
6) reduce the consultation period for collective redundancies involving 100 or more employees from the current 90 days to a mere 30 days;
7) weaken Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment (TUPE) regulations;
Conference notes that the UK has some of the weakest employment rights in the developed world and that many EU countries combine social protection and economic growth to good effect. Conference therefore notes that those rights secured in EU directives are some of the hardest for the Coalition to weaken. However, the Council of Europe’s Committee on Social Rights found in December 2010 that Britain is in violation of no less than 13 of its 16 obligations relating to pay, holidays, working time, the right to organise and the right to collective bargaining.
Conference believes that the government’s decision to remove the requirement for public bodies in England to carry out equality impact assessments; proposals to reduce the amount of compensation awards in discrimination cases and to increase the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims; the import the concept of ‘protected conversation’ into the workplace would set back the cause of equality and years of hard won rights to protect workers from discrimination, bullying and harassment at work.
Conference notes that the Tory led government gives lip service to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality but behind the scenes is gradually eroding our hard-won LGBT rights, a situation only exacerbated by their simultaneous attack on trade union rights.
Conference condemns this government for refusing to implement in full Labour’s ground breaking Equality Act which for the first time gave public bodies a duty to take active steps to promote LGB and trans equality. The specific duties differ between England, Scotland and Wales, with the proposed duties for England weakened by this government, specifically to reduce the ‘burden’ on public bodies.
There is also no longer a legal requirement for public bodies in England to carry out equality impact assessments, which the government has characterised as meaningless bureaucracy.
Conference is concerned that employers may use this to shirk their responsibilities and that – without the backing of a strong union – LGBT workers may have little redress against breaches, and little hope of realising their rights under the Equality Act. Conference notes UNISON’s advice that carrying out equality impact assessments remains the best way to comply with the general equality duty.
Conference applauds the ground-breaking achievements led by UNISON and the trade union movement in recent years in campaigning to enhance protection on equality, employment rights and social justice – including winning comprehensive EU-wide equality legislation, the Equality Act 2010, rights for part-time workers and agency workers and reaffirms its commitment to lead a concerted and sustained campaign to protect trade union gains on employment and equality in the workplace.
Conference reaffirms its commitment to the removal of anti-trade union laws and pledges to oppose any new legal threats proposed by the ConDem Coalition.
Conference has long believed that employment and trade union rights are the best way to reduce poverty and inequality and therefore calls on the National Executive Council to:
a) work with branches and regions to launch a major fight back campaign against attacks on employment, equality and trade union rights;
b) develop a comprehensive equality campaign strategy to support the union’s equality objectives and protect hard won rights on equality to include innovative and cutting edge campaigns such as Million Voices;
c) expose the disproportionate adverse impact of government policies on equality and highlight the impact for specific groups women, LGBT, disabled, young, Black, older and retired people;
d) continue to use the Public Sector Equality Duty and the UNISON Guidance on the Equality Duty as a key campaign, negotiating and legal tool to fight cuts to jobs and services; challenge privatisation, procurement, redundancies, restructuring, outsourcing and commissioning policies;
e) campaign for the introduction of the Equality Act as originally intended and against further erosion of equalities;
f) encourage regional, service group and branch negotiating teams to use the National LGBT Committee’s negotiating toolkit to push employers to promote LGBT workers rights;
g) work with branches, regions and service groups to monitor employers and service providers compliance with the equality duties;
h) work with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to ensure that public bodies are pro-active in meeting their statutory equality duty as set out in the Equality Act 2010;
i) develop a legal strategy aimed at exposing and challenging Britain’s continuing failure to abide by international obligations through strategic cases to the European Court of Human Rights;
j) work with TUC, WTUC, STUC and ICTU to lobby all appropriate politicians of the benefit of employment rights;
k) work with UNISON regions, self organised groups and the National Young Members Forum on campaigning to protect employment rights;
l) continue to work with the Institute of Employment Rights and United Campaign to Repeal the Anti-Union Laws on campaigns;
m) work with European Public Services Union (EPSU) federation to protect EU employment rights directives, particularly the working time directive currently under review;
n) monitor the impact of the government’s austerity measures and spending cuts on jobs and services and the damage to social cohesion and communities