Fighting Unfair Work Capability Assessments

Conference is concerned at the number of deaths following Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit (UC) claimants being found fit for work or where claimants have been denied Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Personal Independence Payments (PIP). Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) figures show that over 2,300 former claimants of sickness-related benefits […]

Educate to celebrate our diverse disabled and LGBT+ families

Conference welcomes the introduction of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Plus (LGBT+) inclusive relationship education in primary schools and relationship and sex education in secondary schools, which forms part of the Department for Education’s statutory guidance, applying to all maintained schools, academies and free schools. Although the mainstream media has focused on the inclusion of […]

Black Disabled People and the Windrush scandal

Conference condemns the Home Office’s politically motivated decision to classify thousands of long-term British residents as illegal immigrants, forcing many of them out of their jobs and homes, and in extreme cases, resulting in detention and deportation. Conference notes that many victims of the Windrush scandal are Black disabled people and the impact of the […]

Access to Mental Health services for Deaf people

Conference notes that Deaf people are twice as likely as hearing people to experience mental health problems, yet they do not have equal access to services. Mental health services are often inaccessible for Deaf people. For example members have reported that they are referred to counselling services where the counsellor does not sign and therefore […]

Disability Passports in the Workplace

Many of our members are not receiving the reasonable adjustments they need in the workplace environment, whether it be removing physical barriers or providing additional support for a disabled employee to protect against substantial disadvantage. A way to encourage the introduction and continuous support of reasonable adjustments would be a disability passport document. A disability […]

Excluding Future Higher Education, Further Education and Sixth Form Staff from the Local Government Pension Scheme

Conference opposes this government’s continued attacks on public sector pensions, the latest of which comes in the form of the recent consultation “Local Government Pension Scheme: Changes to the Local Valuation Cycle and the Management of Employer Risk” launched in May 2019, from the Ministry of Housing, Local Government and Communities. These changes, if implemented, […]

Opposing the Cap on Exit Payments

Conference notes that in 2015 and 2016 the Government legislated for a cap of £95,000 on exit payments in the public sector. In April 2019 the Government launched a consultation on proposed draft regulations and guidance to bring the legislation into force. The consultation ends on 3 July 2019. Conference further notes that: 1) The […]

Excluding future HE, FE and sixth form staff from LGPS (England)

This union opposes plans, outlined in the consultation “Local Government Pension Scheme: Changes to the Local Valuation Cycle and the Management of Employer Risk” launched on the 9th May 2019, from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government , that would allow further education colleges (FECs), higher education institutions (HEIs), and sixth form colleges […]

Rule D Young Members’ Organisation

Insert a new rule after D 6.2.4: “D 6.2.5 The National Young Members Forum may establish a national conference of young members from branch and regional groups.”

EU Exit and Protecting the Peace Process

Conference notes that at the time of writing, the UK is still set to leave the EU on 29 March but that the terms of its exit and whether it will exit at all remains very unclear. Conference believes that regardless of whether the UK has left the EU on 29 March under the terms […]

Young Member’s Facility Time

Facility time is a fundamental right of trade unionists in the workplace. It ensures we support our members at disciplinaries, and that policies of the organisation’s our members work for are scrutinised and negotiated effectively. UNISON already provides brilliant resources for our branches such as the ‘Facility Time, Guidance for branches’ document most recently revised […]

ABUSE IN CARE HOMES

There is an increasing demand for care in the UK. The proportion of elderly people requiring care in the future will place even more demands on a service that is already struggling. With year-on-year cuts to local councils, over 1.8 million people are already denied access to care. This will, as time passes, create an […]

Strengthening Maternity Rights

Conference notes with deep concern research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that too many women continue to experience pregnancy and maternity discrimination in UK workplaces. According to the EHRC research, of the 3,034 employers surveyed: 1)70% said women should declare up front about pregnancy during recruitment; 2)25% said it was reasonable during […]

Fighting for an Accessible Welfare System

Conference notes that eligibility and assessment processes for welfare benefits and public services are rapidly moving to online platforms. For example, applications for Council Tax Support, Housing Benefit, Access to Work, and Universal Credit almost invariably need to be made online. Conversely, Personal Independence Payments (PIP) can only be applied for using a paper form, […]

Suicide awareness training for stewards

With the appointment by the government of a minister who is tasked with reducing suicide rates nationally, the need for all stewards to be trained in suicide awareness has never been clearer. Suicide is everyone’s business and touches families whatever their class, age, gender or family situation. Last year nationally 6,213 people completed suicide and […]