- Conference
- 2024 National Young Members' Conference
- Date
- 30 July 2024
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Period products aren’t free and accessible in the UK, which means that many people can’t afford or access them. ‘Period poverty’ means being unable to access sanitary products and having a poor knowledge of menstruation often due to financial constraints.
Period poverty has increased because of successive years of austerity and the cost-of-living crisis.
In May 2023 the Guardian reported that despite the scrapping of the 5% VAT rate on Tampons in 2021 prices had continued to rise and in many cases by much more than the rate of inflation.
Conference notes that according to statistics gathered by the group Bloody Good Period, 1 in 5 women and people who menstruate are struggling to afford period products.
Conference also notes that an estimated £3.3 billion worth of workdays are lost to period inequity each year.
Action Aid states that in 2023 22% of 18–24 year olds were affected by period poverty and there was an 8% rise in those affected by period poverty.
In the UK, 1 in 10 girls can’t afford to buy menstrual products, while 1 in 7 have struggled to afford them, according to a representative survey of 1,000 girls and young women aged 14-21 by Plan International UK.
Conference believes menstrual health and access to sanitary products is a workplace issue for young workers.
Conference calls on the National Young members Forum to
1. Seek to work with the UNISON National Labour Link Forum to campaign for a Labour government to make it mandatory for employers and schools to provide access to period products as a health, safety and wellbeing issue
2. Seek to work with the UNISON National Executive Committee to encourage branches to hold a stock of period products that are accessible to UNISON members, similar to the national Red Box project.
3. Seek to work with the UNISON national There For You committee to investigate ways that financial support can be given to members struggling with this issue
4. Encourage young members officers to raise this with their branches and make sure that branches have access to the contact details of charities that support this cause and make sure they are accessible to members