Open University closed to disabled students

The Open University’s (OU) is a flexible system of learning that supports the largest disabled student community in the UK. Last year almost 20,000 disabled students studied at the OU and a large number were UNISON’s Disabled Members. Conference is concerned the planned closure of Regional Centres announced on 15 September may mean the OU […]

Disabled Labour

Conference will note the Labour election defeat in May 2015 and the return of a Tory Government. Conference will further note the lack of any policies likely to benefit people with disabilities in the Tory party manifesto or Queens Speech. Moreover, a further round of welfare cuts and reduction of services is proposed. Conference will […]

Attacks on access to justice is an attack on people with disabilities

Conference will note that we are now over 5 months into this Conservative Government and the wellbeing of our disabled members and their families is under constant threat from draconian legislation on welfare, social care cuts by local authority, changes to the benefits system and proposed changes to human rights legislation and a referendum to […]

New Ways of Working and Reasonable Adjustments

Conference notes that government cuts mean employers are looking for new ways of working to save money without cutting jobs. Often referred to as Lean or Agile Working, these methods were developed by Toyota and are predominantly used in manufacturing industries. If implemented correctly they can bring financial savings and improve working conditions. While we […]

Disabled members delivering public services in times of austerity

Conference condemns the continued attacks on the funding of public services. Austerity cuts are providing an environment for employers to continue to cut/reduce vital services, outsource services, or develop shared services with other public bodies and private organisations. The cuts are being used as a reason by employers to increase the use volunteers, have continual […]

Privatisation/Outsourcing and the Equality Duty

Conference is aware this Government is eroding the public sector by privatisation and outsourcing. The Post Office; East Coast Mainline; a third of recent NHS contracts; and more recently, over half of the Probation Service, all moving into private hands, not only will this lead to poorer service provision, it will also have a negative […]

Additional impact of learning difficulties on Mental Health

Conference 2014 acknowledged the particular mental health concerns for disabled LGBT people and agreed an action plan to start to address this. Conferences notes the additional impact that being diagnosed with a learning difficulty or disability can have upon our mental health. People who are not aware of their specific learning difficulty or disability or […]

Coming Out to get Facility Time

Conference will note that participation in self organisation is integral to the core work and values of UNISON. Yet activists are increasingly reporting that employers are cutting back on facility time and questioning the purpose of the meeting. Activists are feeling pressurised into disclosing their disability, sexual orientation or gender identity when they may have […]

The fight for fair sickness absence procedures and ‘Disability Leave’

This Conference notes with concern the election of a ‘Tory’ Government with a majority in Parliament and believes that this will signal a worsening of the rights and the likely employability of disabled people. The Conservatives have indicated their contempt for Industrial Tribunals and are not supportive of any restrictions on employers in their dealings […]

Concessionary travel passes.

Conference notes the benefits that access to public transport, such as buses, trains and coaches, can bring to many disabled people. Concessionary Passes enable this access but the conditions applicable vary across different nations of the United Kingdom. Also currently, passes issued in one country cannot be used in another. Conference believes that there would […]

Guidance on rights for disabled workers

This Conference believes that many disabled workers are unaware of their rights as disabled employees. This Conference also believes that without awareness of rights, such rights cannot be pursued, and become endangered through lack of use. This Conference further believes that (i) it is important that information about disabled workers rights be available in a […]

Tackling Biphobia in the Energy Industry

Conference welcomes the progress we have made in putting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality on the bargaining agenda in the energy industry. 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 workers, while having many […]

Raising the profile of LGBT workplace equality in energy

Conference welcomes the strong track record of our energy service group on equality issues. Amongst other successes, this has resulted in a diversity of activists on our national energy service group bodies, reflecting UNISON’s rules on fair representation and proportionality, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists. Conference acknowledges the importance of such role […]

Energy Efficiency

This conference welcomes the recent focus on domestic energy efficiency and the well documented gains a national programme of energy efficiency measures would achieve. Conference also welcomes the role that UNISON has played in raising awareness of the gains that could be achieved by producing its report ‘warm homes into the future – meeting the […]

Competition and Markets Enquiry

This conference notes that last year the energy regulator Ofgem referred the big six energy companies (British Gas, EDF, E.ON, NPower, SP and SSE) to the Competition and Markets Authority. UNISON has many thousands of members working for these employers. This referral followed an assessment of the sector by Ofgem alongside the Office of Fair […]