National Bargaining

Conference notes the Passenger Transport Forum (PTF) replaced the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) with effect from 1st August 2005. The purpose of the consultative element of the PTF is to provide a joint Employer/Trade Union Forum committed to partnership working in order to consider the Human Resources implication of public transport issues, while the negotiating […]

Stop the destruction of SYPTE

South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE), has, in the last few years lost dozens of members of staff, encouraged to leave via SYPTE’s Voluntary Redundancy scheme, redundancies or merely by the none replacement leavers – many of these job losses have been amongst UNISON members. This policy of slashing services to the public will this […]

Encouraging Diversity in WET Committees

In UNISON around 12% of our total membership identify as Black. UNISON is committed to fair representation and proportionality (Rule D4.1). However we know in the WET sector we do not see enough Black members represented at branch, regional and national committee level despite statistics telling us that Black people are still amongst those most […]

Raising the profile of LGBT workplace equality in WET

Conference welcomes the strong track record of our water, environment and transport (WET) service group on equality issues. Amongst other successes, this has resulted in a diversity of activists on our national WET service group bodies, reflecting UNISON’s rules on fair representation and proportionality. Conference acknowledges the importance of such role models and the contribution […]

Tackling Biphobia in the WET Industries

Conference welcomes the progress we have made in putting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality on the bargaining agenda in the water, environment and transport (WET) industries. However, conference notes that LGBT workers are a diverse group, who experience different types of discrimination in different ways. There is increasing understanding that issues facing transgender […]

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 […]

TTIP and the Water Industry

Although most water companies in the UK are already foreign owned this is not the case of Scottish Water and Dwr Cymru (Welsh Water). As such they have been protected from predatory takeovers. The Transatlantic Trade Treaty (TTIP) whilst being potentially dangerous to many sectors has declared a definite interest in opening up the European […]

Protecting Bus Services

Conference notes the excellent work carried out by the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) in highlighting the widespread cuts to local bus services which have taken place in recent years – in particular their report, “Buses in Crisis: A report on bus funding across England and Wales 2010 – 2015”. Conference notes that the report […]

Changes to the Constitution of the WET Service Group

Conference notes the revised version of the Water, Environment and Transport Service Group Constitution which has been circulated in the papers distributed to delegates. Conference notes that the proposed revisions to the WET constitution have been overseen by the WET Executive and in particular by a sub-group of the WET Executive which was open to […]

Opposing TTIP

Conference notes the continuing action being taken by the European Union and the United States Government officials in relation to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – and opposes, as a matter of principle, the deregulation and privatisation agenda which so clearly lies at its heart. TTIP is particularly pertinent to UNISON members working […]

The Policy Making Role of the Environment Agency

The policy making role of the Environment Agency Conference believes that the 2010-2015 coalition Government made a huge mistake when, in October 2010, it instructed the Environment Agency to “… cease policy making activities”. Previously the Environment Agency had been encouraged to use the expertise and experience at its disposal to contribute to the formulation […]

Ergonomic Risks to Water Field Based Employees

Recently, Thompsons Solicitors won an out of court settlement against United Utilities for an undisclosed sum on behalf of a UNISON field based Water Inspector member. For several years, this member had used his Toughbook laptop computer in his small works van receiving and sending work on a job by job basis to his central […]

Living Wage for Employers within WET

This Water, Environment & Transport Conference congratulates South East Water and its UNISON negotiators on being the first known employer in our Service Group to adopt the living wage. We call upon the WET Executive to produce appropriate communication materials for branches in the WET Service Group to use in pay claims and/or in other […]

Campaign Against Polymer

This Water, Environment and Transport Conference is aware of the ever increasing number of incidents in United Utilities and presumably other Water Industry employers involving polymer. Polymer is a very sticky substance and once it gets onto the soles of boots is not easily removed. This makes walking on certain surfaces very hazardous and increases […]

Proportionality

It is over 20 years since UNISON was formed and proportionality and fair representation were enshrined in the new Rule Book for the new union. After 20 years, the question must be asked – how well have we done on achieving proportionality and fair representation? Conference acknowledges the good work to date on developing mechanisms […]