Conference is delighted that changes to legislation in April 2005 will impose a new disability equality duty on public bodies and some private companies. We believe these new duties could reconstruct a barrier-free society and provide equality of opportunity for the millions of disabled people who are in work, want to work, and those who […]
Conference motions
Conference recognises the right of every member to take part in the union’s campaigning activities, including attendance at marches and rallies. It is therefore important that, as with all other areas of the union’s work, steps are taken to ensure such events are fully accessible to disabled members. We therefore call upon the National Disabled […]
Conference will be aware that community health councils have been replaced with various types of patients forums designed to give people a say in the way in which their local hospital provides services. But too often the voice of older people is not heard and their views and needs not taken into account adequately. Therefore […]
Following the election of a Labour government for a third term, Conference requests that the National Retired Members’ Committee work with UNISON Labour Link as appropriate to promote the following objectives: 1)restoration of the link between pensions and earnings; 2)personal care to be included in long term care of the elderly; 3)free concessionary travel for […]
UNISON retired members have long recognised the need for affordable and efficient public transport for older people. Conference welcomes the launch of UNISON’s charter for public transport. It stresses the need to re-regulate services to produce improvements and highlights the failure of privatisation with bus fares rising faster than inflation and faster than motoring costs. […]
Conference notes the increases in charges to attend classes for Lifelong Learning being proposed by the government. This will affect people on low pay and fixed incomes, especially pensioners. Any reduction in class attendance will result in class closures to the detriment of the students who attend for both academic, cultural and social stimulus. There […]
Conference notes with regret that some councils/social services are to stop daily deliveries of meals on wheels to senior citizens and vulnerable members of our communities. The service is to be replaced by a weekly delivery of frozen food packs. It is also proposed that anyone who does not have a microwave oven or freezer […]
Conference asks the National Executive Council to fight for the following changes to the National Health Service to ensure the comfort and care of elderly and disabled patients: An extra dedicated member of staff will be made available to all elderly and disabled patients when they are admitted to hospital. This member of staff will […]
Conference is concerned that South East Region has unfortunately discovered that disability and equality awareness is not consistent within all UNISON regional education and training courses. Conference instructs National Disabled Members’ Committee to liaise with the regional education committees to ensure that appropriate disability awareness training is included on all UNISON education and training programmes […]
The government has admitted that the introduction of compulsory identity cards and the establishment of a National Identity Register will not in itself overcome international terrorism. Likewise, it has been admitted that benefit fraud is only a tiny part of the problem in the benefit system. Given the cost of introducing the scheme and the […]
Conference is concerned that it is still not widely known that domestic violence accounts for at least 25 per cent of all violent crime, that one in four women will experience domestic violence at some time in their lives, and that every week at least two women will be killed by violent partners or ex-partners. […]
A law is already in place to ensure that women have the right to return to work after maternity leave. All too often, women are returning to work to find their job role has changed, their responsibilities and even their workplace. Although against current regulations, opportunities to return to their previous work are often denied […]
Conference welcomes campaigning materials produced by the National Women’s Committee on work life balance and flexible working. Unfortunately, Conference must also note that the application and interpretation of work life balance has been very different between and within organisations, to the detriment of women. Conference recognises that many employers do not encourage job sharing, or […]
Conference recognises that changes to the state pension system in recent years in terms of contributions, retirement age and earnings on which pensions are based puts women at an unfair disadvantage. The existing state pension alone is insufficient to provide for basic needs and requires a large number of recipients to undergo the humiliation of […]
Conference has previously noted that: 1)many women members are unaware of the opportunities open to them within UNISON; 2)not all branches are able to establish and maintain women’s groups; 3)women still face discrimination and barriers to involvement in the work of the union. Conference also recognises that Composite A, agreed at National Delegate Conference 2004, […]