- Conference
- 2026 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 24 September 2025
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference notes that sexual harassment primarily affects women and girls, disproportionally targeted at the most vulnerable workers. Young, Disabled, Black and LGBT+ women are most at risk as they are more likely to be marginalised in their workplace and lack power.
Conference welcomes the publication of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) consultation on the technical guidance on sexual harassment and harassment at work.
Research undertaken by the TUC has shown there is a link between working in a public facing role or public facing sector and being exposed to third party harassment. Where the perpetrator is a third party, studies further show that women are even more reluctant to report the incident because they believe it will not be dealt with in the same way as it would were the harasser an employee.
Between 2018/19 and 2022/23 violence against women related crimes rose by 37%, with these crimes becoming more complex and multiplied with online incidents of harassment, revenge porn and stalking becoming more common.
Conference notes that UNISON has an excellent training package on Sexual Harassment for branches. Accessing this training will support officers and reps with the knowledge, skills and information needed to support members experiencing sexual harm in the workplace. This is vital to encouraging members to come forward with their adverse and traumatic sexual harm in the workplace experiences.
Conference acknowledges the introduction of the Online Safety Act but more needs to be done to target online driven misogyny and violence against women in order to rid society of sexism and sexual violence. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is being used to copy women’s faces from their social media or LinkedIn profiles to then create deep fake porn photos/videos which look extremely real and only an AI specialist would be able to tell they are fake.
Currently there is no legislation in the UK to protect women from this as the technology is so new and not properly understood.
Conference notes that North West Region has launched a Charter for Tackling Violence Against Women & Girls (VAWG) calling for UNISON branches as employers as well as the employers they work with to sign up to the charter. There are 10 qualifying standards in order to qualify for the Charter mark.
Conference calls on the National Women’s Committee to:
• Produce guidance for women suffering from harassment in the workplace and /or from home outlining assistance available and signposting to relevant support agencies.
• Produce a model violence against women policy for use by branches and encourage them to work with employers to sign UNISON’s Violence at Work Charter
• Produce a model policy for use by branches encouraging them to work with employers to negotiate guidance to protect women workers from harassment and abuse online and via AI.
• Work with Labour Link to lobby and work with government to draft appropriate legislation to protect women from online and via AI abuse.
5) Work with LAOS to deliver an online national training session using the Sexual Harassment training package.
6) Work with LAOS to monitor and report on the uptake of Sexual Harassment training by region.
