Anti-British National Party

Conference reaffirms that campaigning against the far right is – and must remain – a UNISON priority. The British National Party (BNP) gains in the May 2006 local elections in England are a stark warning that our efforts need to be increased. The BNP gained 32 new seats, including 11 (possibly rising to 12, following […]

Terror Raid in Forest Gate

Conference notes with concern: 1)the raid involving 250 police that took place in Forest Gate, Newham, on Friday, 2 June, in which a young man was shot and two young men, one of them a member of the UCW, were arrested and held under anti-terror laws without charge or any evidence of any kind of […]

Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution

Conference congratulates and supports the colossal advances being made by the Venezuelan Revolution under President Hugo Chavez in carrying out policies, which benefit working people, the poor and the landless. Conference recognises that the nine electoral victories won by Hugo Chavez since 1998, provides the Revolution with an overwhelming mandate. This reflects the overwhelming support […]

No Trident Replacement

National Delegate Conference notes: 1)the Trident submarine nuclear weapons system was introduced into Britain in 1994 and will reach the end of its life in 2024. The system is composed of four nuclear-armed submarines, each carrying up to 48 nuclear warheads. Each warhead has an explosive power of up to 100 kilotons – eight times […]

The Best Education for All

Conference reiterates its policy and belief that children, families and communities are best served by a secondary system that is comprehensive, free of selection and accountable to local people through Local Education Authorities (LEAs) and condemns the government for effectively turning education (a social and cultural aspect of society) into a market, eroding the potential […]

Council Housing

Conference notes with alarm the increasingly desperate situation with housing supply and the ongoing decline of council housing. There are now over 100,000 households in temporary accommodation awaiting rehousing; roughly half a million households on council waiting lists and rising numbers of people living in increasingly overcrowded, poor and unsanitary conditions. Households are now paying […]

Public Services

Conference records that the last Spending Review by the Chancellor committed an extra £60 billion to public services up to 2008, with £40 billion going to the National Health Service (NHS). Despite this growth, and accompanying increases in public sector jobs, there has been a misguided efficiency drive and marketisation strategy that is leading to […]

Organising for the Future – UNISON’s Strategy for Inter Union Relations

Conference reaffirms UNISON’s founding vision that our Union should organise all employees working directly or indirectly in the provision of public services in the United Kingdom. UNISON believes that strong union organisation is the best way to safeguard quality public services and workplace rights. Conference notes the continuing merger and realignment of trade unions, nationally […]

Agenda for Change for Staff transferred out of the NHS to Community & Voluntary Sector Providers

Conference notes the success of negotiations with the Department of Health and private contractors to secure an agreement by which staff transferred from the NHS to major private contractors will become subject to Agenda for Change terms and conditions over the next two years. This agreement, when fully implemented, will end of most of the […]

Mileage Allowances

This Conference is extremely concerned that there appears to be no effective or responsive mechanism in place to recompense NHS staff for the petrol they use whilst on official business. This is particularly true for staff who are using their own cars for work purposes. Many employers insist that staff are entitled only to claim […]

NHS in Crisis

Conference notes with deep concern the financial crisis faced by many NHS Trusts across England. In recent weeks there have been news reports daily of Hospital and Primary Care Trusts forced to close departments, freeze recruitment and discontinue the use of agency staff. In addition Trusts are also resorting to redundancy measures to save money. […]

Agenda for Chnage for Private Contractor Staff

Conference congratulates the national negotiating team on reaching agreement to allow Agenda for Change to be applied to staff employed by private contractors. This has every chance of eradicating the two tier workforce and being the catalyst to banish private contractors from NHS Soft Facilities Contracts. Whilst we welcome this move, we have serious concerns […]

Unsocial Hours Review

With the negotiations for an unsocial hours agreement under Agenda for Change well under way, we must learn lessons from the pay modernisation programme. In 2003 Conference passed a motion submitted by Exeter City Branch, that a survey be conducted and published to ascertain what the national rates of pay for sleep-in duty were, and […]

Agenda for Change, The Matching Process & Non-Clinical Jobs

This Health Conference expresses its concern that the implementation of the Job Evaluation Matching Exercise, which is intended to introduce Equal Pay for Equal Value into the Health Service, is in many cases doing the opposite, and that this is happening across the 4 countries, across disciplines and across grades. Conference is very disappointed at […]

NHS Pay, Terms and Conditions

Conference congratulates branches and activists where there has been a significant completion of matching, evaluation and assimilation of jobs under Agenda for Change. The majority of NHS staff will have been assimilated by the end of March 2006 and all this work has been mostly completed in partnership between staff side and management side representatives […]