- Conference
- 2022 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 29 November 2021
- Decision
- Carried
This conference notes the even the NHS acknowledges that “there is evidence of disproportionate mortality and morbidity amongst black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people, including our NHS staff, who have contracted COVID-19.” This was backed by the tragic facts that emerged during the pandemic:
• Of the first 106 staff that died in 2020, 63 were known to be Black,
• This rate of death was 3 times greater than the proportion of Black staff in the NHS.
• In a survey for ITV News in February this year they estimated that Black NHS Staff were seven times more likely to die from COVID-19
The ITV study identified a number of factors that potentially lead to this appalling tragedy:
• Higher proportions of frontline staff are Black,
• There was unfair allocation of Black Workers to frontline posts
• A culture of not listening to staff concerns
• Discrimination in the NHS
This conference further notes that both the Government and the NHS establishment sought to downplay the role of the airborne spread of the virus partly because of the low supply levels of appropriate PPE. Many NHS staff suspect this to be the case which highlights lack of trust among the workforce in the government’s handling.
Workers at all levels were putting their lives at risk to provide a service because of Government mismanagement of the NHS over years including the Lansley reforms and forced privatisation of the supply chain.
This conference agrees that this must be tackled urgently and agrees the Health SGE work with the NBMC to:
1. Step up the public-facing aspect of the Race for Equality against race discrimination in the workplace, in particular drawing on the experience of the pandemic.
2. Identify what structural and institutional systems prevent Black workers from playing a full role in the NHS at all levels, including the Trusts themselves, and working to eliminate discrimination from them,
3. Ensure that Branches have access to support for members through the Race Protocol, if required,
4. Actively striving to recruit more Black UNISON Health & Safety reps in the workplace,
5. That all UNISON Health & Safety reps are provided with guidance on how to support Black members during the COVID pandemic including the use of individual Risk Assessments, Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act and other powers they can use to keep members safe,
6. Support UNISON campaigns for full protection in the workplace with regards to PPE, safe health protection and prevention practices, and the right of members to back those campaigns with action and where necessary lawful industrial action.