- Conference
- 2022 Community Conference and Seminar
- Date
- 26 November 2021
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
This conference believes that when members are employed by an organisation within the Charity and Voluntary sector, either on a zero-hours or permanent basis, they are put at a disadvantage when it comes to their working conditions, especially in relation to potentially losing out on pay and / or being marked down as off sick when their condition (as defined by the Equality Act 2010) prevents them from working on certain days for reasons not related to actual sickness.
Conference notes that, although disability-related absence is not a community sector-specific issue, due to the heavy reliance of the sector on zero hours contracts, the issue of whether a member within the sector is likely to be disproportionately affected by being marked down as sick or not, impacts on the sector as a whole – all workers potentially may experience a disability during their working life!
This conference believes that there is a need to review and address inadequate sickness absence policies drawn up by employers in order to improve pay and conditions for members who are frequently having to take time off due to their condition, particularly those whose conditions would make them exceed their organisation’s sickness absence allowance. This should be done by working with organisations / employers to adjust their sickness absence policies to include disability leave alongside existing policy on standard sick leave and ensure that disability leave should not be taken into account when considering the use of management tools such as the Bradford Factor.
This conference therefore calls on the Community Service Group Executive to work with regions and local branches to develop a toolkit to support members, stewards and other reps such as Workplace Contacts to work with their organisation to strive towards amending sickness absence policy to better support members who may experience a disability now or in the future.