Violence at Work – It’s Not Part of the Job!

Conference is deeply concerned at the violence, including threats and physical violence, that is shown towards those working in local government. The latest Health & Safety Executive statistics show that around 307,000 adults of working age in employment experienced violence at work, with an estimated 688,000 individual incidents of violence. According to the Labour Force […]

Pay – Campaigning & Balloting

Recent pay campaigns across the UK have demonstrated that we need to do much more in order to build the confidence of our members in challenging bad practice by their employers. We know that pay matters to members, who have suffered years of austerity, pay cuts/freezes and threats to jobs/services, but they often do not […]

Pay for Members Employed by Private Contractors Delivering Local Government Services.

Conference notes with concern that cuts to local authority budgets and the costs of Covid are impacting disproportionately on the salaries of our members in employed by private contractors who deliver local government outsourced services – including social care, school meals and refuse collection. Many employers delivering outsourced services are engaging in a race to […]

Organising in Multi Academy Trusts

The school system has continued to fragment away from local authorities with the expansion of academies and large Multi Academy Trusts (MATs). Conference notes that Local Authorities have been consistently undermined by the government to drive maintained schools to convert. Strategies have ranged from temporary MAT membership for schools that are ‘nervous’ about joining Trusts, […]

Beyond Covid – Building a Better Future

In March 2020 thousands of workers across the UK adapted to a new way of working by taking into their own homes the employers’ equipment in order for services to continue. Our frontline workers such as social care and care at home staff have continued to provide vital and lifesaving care to their clients, whilst […]

Make 2022 the Year of Disabled Workers in local government workplaces

Conference notes that UNISON has declared 2022 the Year of Disabled Workers. This is a great opportunity for local government branches to organise, bargain and campaign on the issues that matter to our disabled members and to increase recruitment and retention as a result. Local government branches can use 2022 to highlight the experience of […]

Promote UNISON as the Union for Social Work

Social work teams across the country provide a vital service to our communities by supporting those who are often society’s most vulnerable – including children, older adults, and individuals with physical or learning disabilities. Social work teams have continued to provide this care during the pandemic, often by making difficult decisions and quickly adapting to […]

Home Working and Reasonable Adjustments

Conference notes that the Covid-19 pandemic saw a revolution in home working in local government workplaces. Although it is important to remember that home working should be a choice and not compulsory, it has brought benefits for many local government workers in terms of work-life balance. Parents and carers have been better able to combine […]

School-based Counselling in Every Primary and Secondary School in England

The grief, anxiety and depression children have experienced during the pandemic is welling over into classrooms and hallways, resulting in crying and disruptive behaviour in many younger kids and increased violence and bullying among adolescents. For many other children, who keep their sadness and fear inside, the pressures of school have become too great. Good […]

Privatisation By The Back Door

All too often these days we see our council-run local government services are being outsourced, privatised or moved to wholly owned/arm’s length companies. The setting up of these new companies, including social enterprises is frequently sold to branches and staff as nothing to be concerned about. In some circumstances the process can take place with […]

A National Insourcing Strategy for Local Government

Conference congratulates the Neath Port Talbot Local Government Branch on the resounding success of their campaign to bring leisure services back in-house. Following a concerted campaign by the branch, on 1 February 2022 Neath Port Talbot Council made the unprecedented decision not to renew their contract with Celtic Leisure Trust, or seek another provider, but […]

Trans Equality in Local Government – Louder and Prouder!

The toxic debate ignited by the United Kingdom government’s consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act underlined the importance of our union, including branches in the local government service group, supporting and representing our trans members effectively Attacks on trans rights have escalated further in the past year. There has been a sustained attack on […]

LGBT+ Workers and Adult Social Care

Conference notes the Tory government, has broken manifesto pledges by raising National Insurance contributions and suspending the ‘triple lock’ on pension increases. On 7th September 2021, it published ‘Build Back Better: Our plan for health and social care’ announcing an impending White Paper on the future provision of adult social care in England. Conference also […]

End Misogyny and Violence Against Women

This conference supports women in their fight against misogyny, aggression, harassment violence against women in society. We have seen an increase in this behaviour nationally and locally towards female Members of Parliament, Councillors and elected officials and staff. Recent cases highlight this such as the Goodwillie, Mendy, Greenwood and the Met Police highlight the struggle […]

Sexual Harassment, Still Going Strong!

Conference is concerned about the extent of sexual harassment in workplaces and that there are no signs that it is decreasing. Far from it. There is evidence that the requirement to work from home during the pandemic led to online sexual harassment becoming more prevalent. Local government service group workplaces are no exception to this […]