Save Our Services

Conference notes with deep concern the government’s continuing commitment to the private provision of public services. In every part of the public sector from schools and hospitals to housing and benefits the government is pushing ahead with privatisation and outsourcing. In the National Health Service (NHS), the government appears committed to privatisation by stealth. At […]

Defending Agenda for Change

Conference notes that as we move onwards from Agenda for Change (AFC) implementation and assimilation, we are starting to lose the valuable skills of staff side job evaluators, job matchers and KSF advisors. As local staff sides (and in particular the participation of UNISON representatives), we are increasingly finding ourselves with diminishing resources resulting in […]

Privatisation and Private Consultancy Firms

This Conference views with disgust how in the 10 years of a New Labour Government the large legal and accountancy firms have been able to increase their financial turnover and profits from the public pulse strings. The grand offices of these organizations such as Herbert Smith, Eversheds, Price Waterhouse Cooper and KPMG have been furnished […]

Local Government White Paper

Conference notes that the 2006 Local Government White Paper has major implications for thousands of UNISON members not just in local government, but in health, education policing, transport and other areas. It also affects all our members as local citizens. Conference also notes that the agenda set out in the White Paper, and the subsequent […]

Organising and Recruiting

Conference believes the priority for UNISON is to organise and grow and eventually become a union of two million public service members because unless we grow in numbers and density we cannot grow in influence with employers, the government and other agencies. A growing union is the most effective way of improving the working lives […]

Review of Branch and Service Group Structures

Conference approves the recommendations contained in the National Executive Council’s report on the Review of Branch and Service Group Structures: Recommendation 1. National Executive Council (NEC) to produce a revised scheme as per rule G 1.2 to ensure that branches: a)give members a right to participate in their union; b)give members a right to be […]

Marketisation of Public Services

Conference believes that the marketisation of public services threatens the advances that have been made in the last 10 years, brought about as a result of a major investment and reform programme resulting in a dramatic cut in NHS waiting lists and waiting times, rising school standards, falling crime, safer communities and improvements in local […]

UNISON Commitment to the Environment

Conference welcomes the environmental campaign work that UNISON has undertaken over the previous year. Our union has a strong record on the environment, which has included both work place specific activities, such as negotiating green travel plans, cycle to work schemes and re-cycling facilities, and support for national and international campaigns, such as the call […]

Organising Migrant Workers in the UK

Conference applauds the work that UNISON has done recently in respect of organising, representing, protecting and supporting migrant workers. Conference calls on UNISON to continue its positive response to inward migration, and to take this opportunity to recruit and organise these, often vulnerable, workers. UNISON has provided recruitment and information materials in several languages, set […]

Attacks on Public Sector Workers: Violence Against Staff

The Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006 now provides greater protection in law for all emergency workers. A person guilty of an offence under this Act is liable on summary conviction to a fine. The Act follows the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 which made it a specific offence to assault, obstruct or hinder someone providing […]

Access to Work

Conference welcomes the intention of the government to give greater assistance for disabled people and those suffering ill health who seek access to work. However it notes with concern that part of the government’s plans for the reform of Incapacity Benefit and replacement by an Employment and Support Allowance involve A) the potential for sanctions […]

Rise of BNP

Conference notes the: 1)rise of the British National Party (BNP) in the West Midlands and across the country; 2)joint work carried out with Searchlight and Unite Against Fascism (UAF) in campaigning against the BNP; 3)positive steps forward in working with other trade unions and establishing local activists and neighbourhood activities to combat the BNP; 4)establishment […]

Sickness Absence Procedures

Conference notes that: 1)employers are adopting increasingly Draconian procedures which allow for an increase in the disciplining and dismissal of genuinely ill employees; 2)these procedures sometimes fail to abide by equalities legislation including the Disability Discrimination Act; 3)sickness absence can often be traced back to the workplace; 4)employers’ actions such as holding vacant posts, increased […]

Employment Rights

Conference welcomes the new individual employment rights for 2007 but believes that there needs to be a fresh push for an increase in collective trade union rights. In particular, Conference notes the extension of the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) regulations for undertaking with greater than 100 employees and the following parts of the […]

Public Services

This is a time of unprecedented change in public services. The government’s reform of our public services seldom translates into anything other than a liberalisation agenda, with markets opened up to the private sector on the false premise that there will be more choice for the ‘consumer’, namely user of public services. The evidence of […]