POLICE CONTROL CENTRES -V- CALL CENTRES

Conference should resist any measure to compare Police control rooms with commercial call centres. Studies in the USA have shown that there has been an improvement of service to members of the public and improvements to staff retention and morale when police control centre staff are treated as an integral part of the emergency services […]

VOLUNTEERS

Conference notes with disgust the increased number of volunteers in England & Wales. Conference therefore condemns any attempts to introduce the use of volunteers within the Scottish Police Service and force in England and Wales.

PROTECTING MEMBERS IN CALL MANAGEMENT/CONTROL ROOMS

Conference is concerned at the number of members facing disciplinary proceedings specifically in the call management bureau. This is not only down to internal issues but also the amount of complaints being made from the public and therefore members are being investigated under the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Conference feels the main problem is down […]

Making the Gender Equality Duty work for all women in local government

Conference welcomes the new duty on local authorities and other public bodies in England, Scotland and Wales to proactively promote gender equality, following the similar, longer-standing duty in Northern Ireland. The gender duty requires local authorities, when carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the need to: 1Promote equality of opportunity between women […]

LOCAL GOVERNMENT FUNDING

Conference notes that since Labour came into power in 1997, parts of local government have received welcome investment and started to recover from the lean Tory years. For example, by 2007/8, local government in England will have seen a 39% increase in overall funding in real terms since 1997. Much of this has been in […]

STRATEGIC SERVICE PARTNERSHIPS

Conference notes the continuing trend of local authorities to sign up with a private company to provide a Strategic Service Partnership. This can occur even when an authority is functioning well and for no other reason than an attempt to bring ‘new’ jobs to an area. The Local Government White Paper and Local Government Bill […]

WORKERS ON ATYPICAL CONTRACTS

Conference notes the extensive use of atypical contracts in local government, and that young workers are over represented amongst those on atypical contracts, including term time working and agency working. Conference reaffirms the concerns expressed by Local Government Conference 2004 about the position of Term Time workers. Term Time workers also lose out through low […]

SCHOOL STAFF NATIONAL FRAMEWORK

Following on from previous Local Government Conference decisions, this conference welcomes the movement towards establishing a national framework for school support staff in England. Conference notes that over one third of schools in England are already self governing, with staff directly employed by the school, and that this figure is likely to increase. Given this […]

EQUALITY DUTIES AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Conference welcomes the equality duties on race, disability and gender which require local authorities to promote equality of opportunity and eliminate discrimination for service users and staff, rather than wait for individuals to complain. Existing practices and any changes to employment or service delivery must be assessed to examine their impact – giving branches a […]

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PENSION SCHEME

Conference notes the current position in respect of the “New Look” Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) and in respect of protection for those adversely affected by the withdrawal of the “Rule of 85”. This conference condemns the fact that the union’s position on the 85 year rule moved from full protection to securing transitional protection […]

Continuous Service

This Conference is dismayed by the lack of success in negotiating a change in rules regarding continuous service. A motion was unanimously passed three years ago and yet still people who leave and come back to Local Government have to start building up service time to count for extra annual leave from scratch. We urge […]

Definition of Violence Against Women

Research at national and international level has consistently shown that domestic violence is a form of gender specific violence. Violence against women is a violation of internationally guaranteed human rights, rights which the United Kingdom (UK) has signed up to, such as the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against […]

White Ribbon Campaign

For years Women in UNISON have been active in the campaign “Raise the Roof on Domestic Violence”. This campaign has made great progress and now men have launched their own campaign on violence and women. On the White Ribbon campaign website, www.whiteribboncampaign.co.uk/, it states that the “White Ribbon Campaign UK is the United Kingdom branch […]

Women’s Promotional Materials

Many years have elapsed since we had ‘women in UNISON’ t-shirts, badges and literature available for promotional events, recruitment campaigns and collective identity. Although some individual branches and regions have sourced their own items for particular events, we miss having a national supply of ‘women in UNISON’ goods that we can all access, use and […]

The Women and Work Commission Recommendations

Conference notes that the government has responded to the Women and Work Commission’s report, and has published an action plan “From the playground to the boardroom”, which is designed to break down barriers to women’s achievement. Measures include: 1)the roll-out of new ‘Equality Reps’ across England; 2)a major new ‘Exemplar Employer Initiative’ – the government […]