Local Government and Brexit

Conference notes that when the UK leaves the European Union (EU), a large amount of EU regional aid will be lost. The Local Government Association’s report ‘Beyond Brexit’, published in July 2017, calculated that the funding gap would be £8.4bn. This funding has been used by local areas to create jobs, deliver skills training, and […]

Funding for Early Years

This Conference believes that the current levels of funding across the UK for early education and care are insufficient to provide for the high quality of services our young children deserve. The recent research report from UNISON Scotland on the impact of early years staff on children’s outcomes found that the biggest single factor in […]

Youth and Community Workers

Conference notes that youth and community workers do a vital job in our communities, providing real and long-lasting benefits for young people. While some public services step in when problems occur, youth services prevent so many difficulties from occurring in the first place. UNISON members in youth services help young people to lead positive lives […]

Organising Occupational Groups

UNISON Renfrewshire recently held a successful summit for additional support needs assistants and home care staff. The purpose of the summit was to bring together two different occupational groups affected by similar issues, in this case administration of medicines, grading and working conditions. The Scottish Trades Union Congress was also involved in the event. Following […]

Rule C Honorary Members

C 2.8.2 Add at the end “or in such cases where a Rule I investigation is either impracticable or inappropriate, the National Executive Council shall have the power to revoke the Honorary Membership.”

The Crisis in Health and Social Care

Conference is alarmed that our health and social care system faces an unparalleled crisis of under-funding, staff shortages, organisational upheaval and privatisation. With the country set to celebrate 70 years of the NHS on 5 July 2018, Conference is appalled that our health service is currently embroiled in a crisis made in Westminster. Conference notes […]

Promoting the Union as an Organising Union

Conference notes that since the formation of UNISON twenty five years ago there has been significant progress in recruiting and organising new members. As a result of the work done across the whole union, UNISON is now the largest UK trade union. It is particularly pleasing, from the point of view of the future of […]

The UK EU Withdrawal Agreement and the Future UK – EU Relationship: Campaigning for a New EU Deal Fit For Workers

Conference notes that since the triggering of Article 50 March 2017 the government’s European Union (EU) withdrawal negotiations have been embarrassingly incompetent. There has been no clear EU exit plan or cohesive strategy to get the best deal from the negotiations for the UK economy and workers. The weak UK negotiations have been a result […]

Workers’ Rights in Turkey

Since the failed coup attempt in July 2016 Turkey has experienced a rapid deterioration of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. President Erdogan has used the state of emergency to detain, dismiss and silence his critics; targeting trade unionists, journalists, human rights defenders and anyone perceived not to support the government. Approximately 120,000 […]

Trade Union Facilities

Conference notes motion 16 passed at NDC conference 2016 instructed the NEC to: “Work with Labour Link to campaign to defend facility time, briefing individual elected politicians at all levels, developing model motions for councils – making it clear that attacked on facility time are particularly unacceptable from Labour councils – and pushing for debates […]

Crisis in Local Government

Local Government and local services are at crisis point. Demands and expectations of services are increasing year on year while finances are dwindling. Local authorities provide the glue that hold society together; either through lifelong education, wellbeing, transportation, refuse or social care to name but a few. Services that every person uses at some point, […]

Women and sickness absence

Conference notes that increasingly local government employers are penalising employees taking sick leave, and that women are disproportionately affected by the sickness absence schemes in use in local government that treat regular short periods of absence particularly severely. There are many women-specific conditions that fall foul of those penalties, including endometriosis, menorrhagia, menopause, PMS- related […]

Henry VIII’s Cruellest Cut

We voted to leave the EU. Control over our laws, it was argued, would be returned to our Houses of Parliament and all our laws would be debated by our democratically elected Members of Parliament, with our democratic rights strengthened, not weakened. The proposed Great Repeal Bill, which will repeal The European Communities Act 1972, […]

Rule G Branch Officers

G 4.1.1 Branch Officers After “Welfare Officer” insert “, Women’s Officer (who must be a woman)”

Flexible working

Conference notes that the right to request flexible working was extended to all employees in 2014. However, the experience of reps and members within the water, environment and transport sector is that many employers are only prepared to agree to flexible working patterns for certain groups of staff, and then only on limited terms. Further, […]