- Conference
- 2024 National Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 18 October 2023
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that the workforce in the Health sector is overwhelmingly female who often work in stressful and traumatic working environments. Additionally, caring responsibilities and maintaining the household disproportionately fall on women. This can negatively impact mental health and stress levels.
Conference notes that health service group workers are also having to deal with various other stressors such as heavy workloads, the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, under-investment in the health industry, zero-hour contracts, discrimination, harassment and low pay as inflation rises while governments across the UK hold down wages.
All these factors can have a detrimental effect on mental health, especially on women with disabilities and Black women.
Conference recognises that mental health is a workplace issue which must be addressed by trade unions in negotiations with employers and by direct support for affected workers.
Conference also notes the work done by UNISON in highlighting the impact of poor mental health and in providing educational materials to assist branches in ensuring that organisations treat mental health with the seriousness it deserves, with procedures that protect staff in general and maximise the assistance given to workers experiencing mental health problems in particular.
The national women’s committee believes that the Health Service Group Executive has a key role to play in improving mental health of women working in the health sector.
Conference calls on the Health Service Group Executive to:
1)Work with the National Women’s Committee to campaign for mentally healthy workplaces where women can thrive;
2. Promote UNISON’s guide to bargaining on mental health to women members working in the health sector, branch and regional women’s officers and self-organised groups;
3. Encourage branches to train workplace representatives to negotiate robust mental health work place policies to address the situation.