- Conference
- 2024 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 20 February 2024
- Decision
- Carried
Conference is proud that UNISON is one of the founding members of the Disability Employment Charter which now has over 160 organisations signed up to it, including trade unions, disabled people’s organisations, public service employers, charitable organisations and private sector employers. However, conference notes that there are still far too few local authorities signed up to the charter.
The Disability Employment Charter was founded because of the disadvantage that disabled people experience in the labour market and workplaces. This includes in local government employers, where UNISON surveys have consistently shown that our members still wait far too long for reasonable adjustments to be put in place. In fact, many local government workers never receive a response at all to their reasonable adjustment requests.
Disability leave is also shockingly rare in local authorities, with many of our disabled members having to rely on sick leave, annual leave or unpaid leave when they should be entitled to paid time off related to their impairment.
The charter outlines the actions that government needs to take to address the disadvantage disabled people encounter in their working lives, making key demands such as a two week deadline for responses to reasonable adjustment requests, a stronger right to disability leave, time off for trade union disability reps and mandatory publication of the disability pay gap.
Although the charter was originally conceived as a way of putting pressure on government, it is increasingly being used as a way of opening up a discussion with employers on workplace bargaining.
Some local government branches have used the charter as a bargaining and negotiating tool to improve working conditions for disabled members; with employers reporting on the make-up of the workforce, reporting on disability pay gaps, increasing employment opportunities for disabled people, incorporating commitments to disability equality in the procurement process and providing reasonable adjustments more quickly.
Conference calls on the Service Group Executive to work with the National Disabled Members Committee to:
1) Continue to promote sign-ups to the Disability Employment Charter with local government branches, including developing and circulating a template motion for local authorities to adopt;
2) Provide guidance to local government branches on the arguments to make when seeking employer sign ups and on how the Disability Employment Charter can be used as a bargaining and negotiating tool to promote disability rights in local government workplaces;
3) Collate good practice of how local government branches have utilised the Disability Employment Charter to improve working conditions for disabled members.