- Conference
- 2020 Community Conference and Seminar
- Date
- 5 November 2019
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference notes that nationally the number of UNISON Health and Safety representatives in the workplace is diminishing.
This continues to be of particular concern to the Community Service Group where, out of a collective membership of almost 75,000 members, less than 250 across all our nations/regions are accredited Health & Safety Representatives.
Our workplaces are constantly evolving, with members in the Community Service Group facing increased workloads due to a combination of factors ranging from cuts to local authority funding, restrictive social care contracts, project-based voluntary sector commissioning that does not cover overheads, increased commercialisation and a target-driven culture in housing associations. These pressures make the importance of ensuring good physical and mental health and safe Community workplaces clear.
Additionally, the evidence collected by the Community Service Group relating to our members’ experience of violence at work, the effects of unsafe working practices on our mental health, lack of safeguarding of staff, poor sickness leave policies and the erosion of good Health and Safety practice clearly demonstrates the need to address these issues through the recruitment and retention of workplace Health and Safety representatives.
Conference welcomes the initiative the Community Service Group Executive has taken in conjunction with UNISON�s National Health and Safety Unit to ensure that members are resourced with appropriate information about the key Health and Safety issues confronting us in our workplaces and the value we place on having well-resourced accredited Health and Safety representatives.
The additional and linked roll out of the End Violence at Work Charter underpins the need to build upon and enhance the capacity of UNISON Health and Safety representatives in our workplaces.
Conference therefore calls on the Community Service Group Executive to:
1. Continue to work with the National Health and Safety Committee to ensure that the issues raised by Community members are contained within their bargaining agenda.
2. Continue to work with regions and branches to prioritise the recruitment of Health and Safety representatives within their recruitment strategies in the Community sector.
3. Regularly disseminate information about the role and function of Health and Safety representatives to members in Community demonstrating the linkages to our bargaining issues.