- Conference
- 2022 National Disabled Members' Conference
- Date
- 8 July 2022
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference welcomes progress made by UNISON over many years in campaigning and negotiating for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender plus (LGBT+) people both in work and in society.
Despite these advances, many transgender people still experience serious abuse and discrimination on a daily basis, including in their workplaces.
A disproportionate number of trans people identify as disabled, often due to mental health problems caused, or exacerbated by discrimination.
Trans people who are disabled face a double disadvantage where they can be refused reasonable adjustments and be turned down for jobs on the basis of being trans and disabled. The pay gap is also worse for trans women who are disabled.
It is important that we all call out anti trans discrimination in the workplace and in every day life, just as we would expect non-disabled people to support us in our fight against disability discrimination.
We therefore welcome the new Trans Ally training developed by UNISON’s National LGBT+ Committee which is being rolled out nationally and regionally. As disabled people we understand how it feels to be overlooked and discriminated against.
It is of course important that all UNISON training is accessible and this training should be fully accessible by design, with reasonable adjustments provided where required. The trans ally training has so far been delivered virtually but adjustments should be available across all UNISON training, whether online, hybrid, or in person.
Conference also welcomes the new facility which allows delegates to UNISON conferences to have their preferred pronouns added to their delegate credentials badge. This is an inclusive step that should be encouraged to allow people to be themselves, knowing that other people will respect their identity.
Conference believes that trans rights are human rights and we must all be allies of our trans disabled members, whether in our union or in the workplace. We therefore call on the National Disabled Members Committee to work with the National LGBT+ Committee to:
A)Publicise the new trans ally training to regions, urging them to request that it is run in their region;
B)Seek to run a trans ally training session for all members of the National Disabled Members Committee;
C)Encourage disabled members to use the pronoun facility for conference name badges and circulate UNISON’s ‘Why pronouns Matter’ fact sheet to regions;
D)Continue our work to ensure that our self organised group is inclusive of both trans and non-binary disabled people’s identities, in our language, policies and practices.