- Conference
- 2024 National Young Members' Conference
- Date
- 21 November 2024
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that, while the public sector proper was excluded from the increase in employers’ National Insurance announced on 31 October, this has placed significant financial pressures on private and third sector bodies delivering public services, such as universities and community organisations. Organisations like these both employ young workers and provide services young workers rely on.
Conference acknowledges that this has led to a reduction in service quality, such as in the form of additional voluntary or compulsory redundancies announced at many universities, particularly in Scotland, where the increase in the English tuition fee has had no mitigating effect.
Conference further acknowledges that this tuition fee increase for England also negatively impacts young workers who are pursuing a degree, as do increased charges for services offered by community organisations.
Conference believes that all public services belong in public ownership, and should be regularly funded by general taxation rather than by insecure grant funding, arbitrary debt arrangements, or the barrier of charges at the point of use, all of which serve only to reduce social mobility and threaten the reliability of these services.
Conference calls on the National Young Members’ Forum to:
1)Engage with the National Labour Link Committee to highlight the benefits of publicly-owned public services to the wellbeing and future prospects of young workers,
2)?Campaign to raise awareness of the detrimental impact of the insecure funding of private and third sector bodies providing public services on young workers, and
3)?Develop resources which young members, especially those employed in the private and third sectors, can use to organise in their workplaces around UNISON’s commitment to public ownership of public services.