- Conference
- 2019 National LGBT+ Conference
- Date
- 25 July 2019
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that:
1)Rule L4 provides that:
“Members … on Vesting Day (1st July 1993) … retain entitlement to any financial benefits of their former union … providing they continue to remain in membership of UNISON”; and,
2. The Guide to UNISON Rule Book Benefits appears no longer to be available but an edition based upon the 2010 rule book confirms that:
“Death of spouse benefit is … payable to ex- NUPE (National Union of Public Employees) members … at half the rate quoted in the UNISON rule book (for Death Benefit)”.
Conference wonders whether some ex-NUPE members with same-sex partners may not have claimed death of spouse benefit because they have taken the term ‘spouse’, rightly or wrongly, to exclude their partner.
Conference would like death of spouse benefit to be more widely and more clearly publicised among ex-members of NUPE in same-sex relationships.
Conference instructs the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender plus (LGBT+) members’ national committee to:
A)Seek from the National Executive Council clarification on how UNISON uses the term ‘spouse’;
B. Publicise death of spouse benefit, via appropriate publications and media, aiming to inform LGBT+ ex-NUPE members; and,
C. Since many ex-NUPE members are now retired, ask the retired members’ national committee to help it do so.