Launch a national challenge to Hunt’s divisive pay strategy

Conference notes that on 13 March 2014 Secretary of State Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt released the 28th Report of the NHS Pay Review Body and announced the Department of Health’s pay policy for NHS Staff in England from 1 April 2014. Subsequent announcements were made by Ministers in Scotland and Wales about the pay uplift […]

NMC Fees

Conference notes the decision taken by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) at its meetings on the 26th March 2014, to consult on a proposed fee increase of 20% from February 2015 Conference further notes that the NMC remains under special measures and is monitored more closely than other regulators following a damning report into […]

Mark Duggan Inquest

Mark Duggan a young Black man and father of 5 was shot dead by armed Officers in August 2011 in Tottenham, which sparked riots and large scale civil unrest across England. Following the inquest into his killing the jury found that Mark Duggan had thrown a gun from the vehicle he was travelling in just […]

LGBT Rights in India

Conference notes with alarming shock the ruling by India’s Supreme Court on December 11, 2013, that same-sex conduct between consenting adults remained a criminal offence. This is a setback for the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people. The court reversed a landmark 2009 Delhi High Court decision that a colonial-era law infringed […]

Challenging Discriminatory Practices, Defending Pu

Challenging Discriminatory Practices, Defending Public Services Conference as well as forming a significant part of the public sector workforce Black people are also primary users of public services. Cuts to funding are closing some services whilst putting significant pressure on remaining community and voluntary organisations supporting the Black and other vulnerable communities at a time […]

No Smears, Justice for the Lawrence Family Campaig

No Smears, Justice for the Lawrence Family Campaign This Conference is proud of the work and support UNISON has provided to the family of Stephen Lawrence since his murder 20 years ago. This racist murder in April 1983 marked the beginning of a long battle for the Lawrence family with the British police force, the […]

Campaigning against provatisation in the NHS

UNISON branches and members have been at the forefront of campaigns over the last two decades and more to keep our National Health Service public. When necessary and allowed, UNISON branches and members have taken industrial action to maintain and promote the National Health Service. Conference condemns the shameful decision of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS […]

Fighting Privatisation

Conference condemns the wholesale privatisation of large parts of the NHS by the Con / Dem government. Without any democratic mandate the NHS is being dismantled bit by bit and handed over to private sector providers who are driven by the profit motive rather than a commitment to deliver quality care for patients. Conference rejects […]

Procurement and Cost Improvement in the NHS

Conference is all too aware that the Coalition Government led by the Tories are ideologically committed to dismantling the NHS and selling it off to their friends in the private healthcare sector. Cameron’s pre election promise that there would be no top down reorganisation of the NHS was mere hypocrisy. Their underfunding of the NHS […]

Budget Cuts and the Impact of Austerity on Black W

Conference condemns the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition for the widespread and unprecedented destruction of public services that has resulted from the savage and unprecedented reductions in central government funding to local government, health, education, police, probation and the rest of the public sector. Public sector workers have borne the brunt of this in job losses, the […]

Zero Hours Contracts in the NHS

UNISON research into zero hours contracts shows that more than 40% of care workers are on these contracts. Activists are reporting that more employers are using zero hours contracts more widely across the NHS. This also includes operational service staff. Zero hours contracts are imbalanced and the employer reaps all the benefits. Members are asked […]

The Challenge of Recruiting and Organising in a fr

Our NHS is facing the biggest threats in its 65 year history. The impact of the Health and Social Care Act is being felt across all four countries and austerity measures, reorganisations, funding cuts and freezes that are being imposed by the Westminster Government has led to increasing fragmentation of health services. Since 2013 when […]

Nursing Workforce – Safe Minimum Staffing Levels

UNISON has long been concerned with inadequate staffing levels on hospital wards leading to compromised patient care. This was borne out in the Francis Inquiry and Keogh reports. The shortages of Registered Nursing Staff, appropriate skill mix and overall staffing levels to carry out the fundamental care of patients is now at crisis levels. Despite […]

Future Pay Determination in the NHS

Conference believes that since the election of the Tory-led coalition, the remit issued by the Government to the Pay Review Body (PRB) each year has been so restrictive as to remove any genuinely independent process from establishing NHS Pay. In effect each of the remits has purely asked the PRB to recommend how the Government’s […]

Campaign for Ambulance Workers Pension Retirement Age

Conference proposes that UNISON campaigns to bring front line ambulance workers pension retirement age in line with other emergency workers. Front line ambulance staff are soon to be expected to work until they are 67 years old, this is unrealistic bearing in mind the arduous and unpredictable nature of the work. Shift work and long […]