Autism in the Workplace: Autism and trade unionism

Autism is a term which covers a wide range of conditions that reflect neurological differences among people. A neutral descriptive definition is: Autistic Spectrum Conditions. Conference this is a trade union issue for a number of reasons as it affects both adults with autism who experience difficulties in the workplace, their parents, carers and children […]

Disabled Students Allowances

Conference is concerned about the changes to Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) announced the Government are proposing. When these were first announced in April the Ministers for Universities said he was announcing ‘measures to minimise DSA’ what he actually meant was cuts that will be devastating to disabled members. DSA isn’t just for University Students. It […]

Domestic Abuse, Hate Crime and Disabled People

This Conference is concerned about the high number of domestic abuse that some disabled people are facing. The World Health Organisation’s 2013 World Report on Disability highlighted abuse as a leading cause of death among disabled people. However, little is known about the true extent to which disabled people experience abuse and whether associated issues […]

Welfare Reform

That this Conference recognises that the current Government’s Welfare Reforms are an attack on the poorest and most vulnerable groups in society. With the return of a Tory Government in May, and their commitment to make a further £12 billion of cuts to the Social Security budget, there is no doubt that the level of […]

Stop the destruction of passenger transport services

Conference, we understand that across the country the slashing of transport services to the public will result in the abandoning of printed timetables, the closure of travel centres, information centres and ticket offices. This will significantly disadvantage disabled people as due to their disability not everyone is able to use internet technology to access time-table […]

Induction Process for New Self Organised Group Officers

Taking on a new role is always a challenge; there are new people to meet, rooms to find, processes to learn and documents to read. These challenges are often magnified when they are faced by a disabled person. There is currently no process in place to help new Self Organised Group Officers to learn their […]

Access to Work

This Conference recognises the importance of the Access To Work Scheme which enables disabled people in employment to have support including specialist equipment, a support worker or sign language interpreter or taxis to and from work, for example. This support is vital to ensure disabled people can continue to attend work and make a valuable […]

Minister for Disabled People

Shortly after the General Election this year the prime minister announced that the new minister for disabled people would be Justin Tomlinson, Conservative MP for North Swindon. Tomlinson has a strong anti-benefits and anti-human rights background. Tomlinson is a former national chairman of Conservative Future, the youth wing of the Conservative party and has been […]

Supporting Black Members with learning difficulties

Conference recognises the work that has been done at all levels of UNISON to encourage and meet the access needs of Black disabled members that are actively involved at all levels of UNISON. Conference notes the disproportionate numbers of Black people with learning and physical disabilities. Conference further notes the commitment of the union in […]

Access to Work

ACCESS TO WORK The Access to Work (AtW) programme is a fund that helps disabled people start a new job, or remain in employment, with practical support that goes beyond “reasonable adjustments”, which employers are required to make by law. Without AtW many disabled people would be prevented from doing their jobs because of the […]

Fair representation for Disabled Members in UNISON

Conference is concerned about the level of discrimination currently faced by disabled people. Cuts to public services, welfare reform, changes to health and social care, reductions in disabled students allowances and bedroom tax have all targeted disabled people. To fight this campaign against disabled people, disabled people need to be politically and societally active. We […]

Social Care Workforce

Conference notes with concern that community, health and local government social workers have long been vilified in the media when things go wrong. Individual social workers have seen their careers destroyed when they have been held to account for the failures of the employer to fund the service properly. Portrayal of social workers in television […]

Challenging Growing Inequality

For the past 30 years the economic philosophy has been that wealth would ‘trickle down’ to working people, and it has also been argued that austerity was necessary to build a future for subsequent generations and lift living standards. The reality has been that ordinary people have not seen the quality jobs and higher living […]

Is VS in the water industry the answer?

The present system of outperformance as practiced by most of the water companies in the UK industry is unsustainable and dangerous to both those working in the industry and the general public. To make more money for our owners the companies keep reducing the workforce either by redundancies, restructures or by leaving vacancies unfilled and […]

Meeting the training needs of UNISON activists in challenging times

The challenges facing the trade union movement in relation to developing and training activists have rarely been as difficult as they are now, yet the need to ensure our representatives are confident and skilled is greater than ever. Last year the coalition government announced that full funding for trade union education at level 3 and […]