- Conference
- 2026 National Higher Education Conference
- Date
- 6 October 2025
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes:
That the rise in flexible and home working since the COVID-19 pandemic has benefited many workers, especially in administrative and office-based roles. Many universities now offer the flexibility to work from home when unwell but still capable of working (e.g. with mild illness, a contagious virus or infection or recovering from an injury), allowing sickness absence to be avoided.
However, a lot of our members work in roles that cannot be done from home, such as cleaning, catering, portering, and other frontline duties.
These staff are unfairly disadvantaged, as they do not have the same option and must report sick potentially impacting their attendance records and putting them at risk of capability procedures or disciplinary action. This creates a two-tier workforce, especially where the roles are predominantly done by staff from lower socio–economic groups and racially marginalised backgrounds. This leaves staff feeling undervalued and that they are treated less favourably.
This is an equality issue that must be recognised and addressed by employers. All staff should be treated fairly when it comes to sickness absence, regardless of their ability to work from home. Frontline staff should not be penalised or held to higher attendance standards simply because of the nature of their work.
We therefore call on the Higher Education Service Group Executive to:
1)To work with the NEC, branches and self-organised groups to campaign for:
a)Fair and consistent sickness absence policies and processes that take into account that some roles cannot be performed from home;
b)The end of discriminatory practices where only certain groups of staff can avoid triggering sickness absence through remote working.
2)Develop guidance for branches to help them raise and challenge this issue with employers through collective bargaining;
3)Push for a review of attendance and absence policies to ensure they are equality impact assessed;
4)Promote the value of frontline roles through UNISON campaigns and challenge the structural inequalities these workers face.