- Conference
- 2022 National LGBT+ Conference
- Date
- 27 July 2022
- Decision
- Carried
Following the 2021 LGBT+ conference, the national LGBT+ committee launched a trans equality campaign to be louder and prouder about our support for trans and non-binary members’ rights. This campaign has many elements – from trans ally training and establishing a trans ally network to lobby the United Kingdom’s governments and the Labour Party to be more inclusive of trans and non-binary people.
Conference welcomes the agreement by the national executive council (NEC) at the 2022 national delegate conference (NDC) for all members of the NEC to undertake the Trans Ally training package before the 2023 NDC.
One of the main objectives of the campaign is to ensure the workplaces that we cover as a union have trans equality policies, to ensure they have the appropriate structures in place to support trans workers. It’s not enough for organisations to merely say they are supportive of trans rights – they need to ensure that there are policies and structures in place to back that up.
The national LGBT+ committee has updated the trans model policy that is ready to be adopted as is by employers. It covers a range of topics from ensuring support for trans workers through the transitioning process, to ensuring trans equality in recruitment and how trans equality will be monitored and promoted within the organisation. It also highlights what to do in situations where someone experiences or witnesses transphobic behaviour.
Of course, ensuring your employer has a trans inclusion policy is merely a first step towards creating an inclusive workplace for trans workers, but it’s an important one. We need to ensure that we all work together to affect real change in our workplaces and negotiate our model trans policy with our employers.
Conference therefore calls for the national LGBT+ committee to:
1. Work with UNISON’s NEC and service group executives to promote our trans equality model policy in branches;
2. Encourage branches and regions that use the trans equality model policy to report their successes back to the national LGBT+ committee.