- Conference
- 2022 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 1 January 2022
- Decision
- Carried
Conference recognises that young workers can make a real difference in local government branches by campaigning on the issues that affect them directly. Insecure/precarious work, zero hours contracts, training, discrimination, workplace rights, pay and conditions, mental health, and bullying and harassment are key issues experienced by young workers.
Young people are more likely to be in full-time education and working part-time alongside their studies. Their relative inexperience and the need for flexibility means that young people are more concentrated in low-paying jobs and their work is more unstable, with a greater use of zero-hours/temporary contracts.
Conference notes that during lockdowns, young workers of all ages experienced a fall in hours when furloughed or worked fewer hours on flexible contracts and their job prospects and pay had hit them hard. Young Black workers, young male workers, and those living in southern England, Scotland and Wales were more likely to have seen falls in employment. The Local Government Association (LGA) had seen a 22% drop in the annual number of apprenticeship positions offered within local government and said continuing financial pressures would reduce opportunities for young people in the short term.
Apprenticeships are a particular concern for young people. Noting the impact of the pandemic on young people’s employment, UNISON’s young members’ conference in December 2021 carried motions calling for increased bargaining on quality apprenticeships, training, and internal development, and for the NEC to prioritise recruitment and development of apprentices and a campaign for improved pay and rights.
Conference notes with concern a noticeable and worrying shortage of young members and activists in UNISON and in Local Government. Young members represent just 5% of the whole UNISON membership and only 2% of activists.
This conference notes the continuing discrepancy between numbers of young members and numbers of young activists. Conference notes that RMS figures from February 2022 show that only 4.3% of members in the local government service group are aged under 27.
The role of the young members officer is the post least likely to be filled in a branch. Within local government less than 4% of members are under 27. There is a particular shortage of young members and activists in fragmented areas where organising is more difficult.
A UNISON survey of young members found that 70% of young members said they were not regularly active in UNISON. However, UNISON young members feel positive about the union and said they would like to take part in UNISON activities in the future but just did not know where to start. The findings also show that young women, young LGBT+ and young Black members were more likely to feel intimidated by UNISON or worried about what would be involved if they attended meetings or took part in UNISON activities.
Conference welcomes the work done so far by the Local Government Service Group Executive to recruit and organise young workers, including developing guidance on mentoring for young Black activists.
Conference believes that the full participation of young members is vital to the success of the union in developing a sustainable Local Government activist base for the future and making sure that the voices of young workers are heard across the sector.
UNISON’s Young Workers Charter, launched in November 2019, sets out five key pledges that local government employers should implement in workplaces so as to make a real difference to young people’s working lives: a real living wage, fair employment, equality, training and development, and quality apprenticeships.
Conference believes to grow our union, we should focus on encouraging recruitment, organisation, and meaningful participation of young people who can provide a powerful voice for other young members in local government workplaces and gain the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge necessary to participate in all levels of the union.
Conference recognises that many UNISON members find their way into union activism through involvement in one of the self-organised groups (SOGs) and commends initiatives by SOGs which seek to increase participation by young members and to support and encourage them to become involved in the union beyond those groups. It therefore welcomes the establishing by the National LGBT+ Committee of a new national LGBT+ young members network and mentoring scheme for young LGBT+ members.
Conference recognises we need to consider new ways of organising and involving young people. For example, our offer to student social workers is based on what we can do for them once they graduate and are employed rather than while they are on their courses and placements and giving them a voice in UNISON as students. There is much to be learnt from the Health Service Group’s organising of student nurses. The Northern region’s model of organising student social workers gives students access to a UNISON social worker representative who helps them with any difficulties on their placements and courses.
Conference therefore calls on the Service Group Executive to:
1) Work with the National Young Members Forum (NYMF) to develop a strategy to increase the numbers of young members and activists across the Local Government sector; to promote UNISON membership among young local government workers, encourage members to become active and support campaigns on the issues that are important to young members;
2) Encourage local government branches and regions to use UNISON’s resources to recruit, organise, and increase meaningful participation of young people, particularly young Black, disabled, and LGBT+ members who remain underrepresented in UNISON and local government; including promote the NYMF’s report “Getting Active in UNISON” to Local Government branches who want to develop a plan to increase activity by young members;
3) Survey branches across the sector to identify both challenges and success stories in developing young activists;
4) Encourage and support local government branches to develop mentoring and buddying schemes to support new young activists, including promoting UNISON’s Learning and Organising Service’s (LAOS) resources on mentoring and their own guidance on mentoring young Black activists
5) Promote the new LGBT+ young member network widely within the service group and encourage young members to participate
6) Work with the self-organised groups and the National Young Members Forum to promote existing learning resources on activist development, mentoring and buddying mentoring schemes across the service group
7) Continue to promote the UNISON trans ally training widely within the service group and encourage young members to participate”
8) Work with regions, branches, and members of the Service Group sector committees to promote UNISON’s Young Workers’ Charter and encourage local government employers to sign up to the Charter;
9) Ensure that regions and sectors, in bargaining with national local government employers, promote the five priorities as set out in UNISON’s Young Workers Charter;
10) Continue to monitor apprenticeship schemes within local government workplaces, recruit and organise apprentices in our branches and continue to push to get employers to sign up to the UNISON Apprenticeship Charter;
11) Encourage local government branches and regions to use UNISON’s resources to recruit, organise, and increase meaningful participation of social work students and promote UNISON’s Social Work Manifesto which sets out how we see the profession now and how we see it evolving in the years ahead.