- Conference
- 2015 Community Service Group Conference
- Date
- 6 November 2014
- Decision
- Carried
Community members within the housing and associated areas, view with concern, the impact on their jobs, pay and terms and conditions, of the ongoing roll out of ‘Welfare Reform’. It has been apparent from the introduction of the ‘bedroom tax’ that the reduction on the amount of housing benefit paid to tenants and service users, leaves many in debt. This means less income for our employers. With further ‘Welfare Reform’ and also payments going directly to tenants and service users, this trend will only get worse.
This Conference believes that apart from the terrible impact on those we service, the increase in poverty and debt, our members are directly affected as our employers battle the effects of reduced rental income.
The Conference believes that:-
1) Stress will increase on our members as they will be under pressure to get rents paid at all costs.
2) This will be detrimental to the service users and remove help and assistance that would have been beneficial to them.
3) Members will be more likely to be subject to ‘violence at work’ incidents from service users, as they come under pressure.
4) Members will be liable to undue pressure from their managers to achieve unrealistic targets.
5) Employers may feel forced to reduce jobs, pay and terms and conditions of our members, in order to ‘balance the books’.
6) Our members are and increasingly will suffer from the same poverty and threats of homelessness as our service users.
This Conference calls upon the Service Group Executive to:-
a. Gather statistical information from the pilot areas for ‘Welfare Reform’ to inform members of the extent of the damaging impact of ‘Welfare Reform’ on housing providers in those areas.
b. Investigate ways of mitigating the impact of increased debt to our employers on our jobs, pay and terms and conditions. This should include ways in which UNISON could campaign, publicise and engage with organisations with whom we have common purpose.
c. Report back on progress on this matter to Community Conference 2016.