Youth Services in Crisis

Conference is deeply concerned about the disproportionate level of cuts to youth provision in the statutory and voluntary sectors. The workforce is facing major redundancies and those workers who survive the cull are facing attacks on their pay and conditions. Losing the skills and expertise of youth and community workers made redundant will have a […]

Colleges and the Green Agenda

Conference is concerned that as a result of savage funding cuts the green agenda could be dropped or sidelined by many employers. Conference notes that many college jobs are reliant on the development of training and education provision that supports the growth of new green industries. Conference is very concerned that the Tory led Westminster […]

Campaigning Against College Cuts

Conference is outraged by the savage funding cuts being inflicted on Further Education and Sixth Form colleges by the Tory led Government. Cuts that will both threaten large scale job loses in colleges and lead to increasing hardship and deprivation in the communities that our colleges serve. Conference notes that many of the colleges facing […]

Defending Meat Inspection Workers

This Conference notes the vital job which is done by Food Standards Agency meat inspectors, inspecting every piece of meat produced in Britain. However these civil servants work in appalling conditions with UNISON 2011 survey revealing that 64% have been bullied in the last 2 years, and 40% have had time off as a consequence. […]

Employee Led Mutuals “Pathfinder” Programme in Local Government

In February the government announced that the London Borough of Newham was one of these pilots, creating a new mutual model of delivery in children’s and young people’s early intervention services. We believe that the timing will inevitably lead to its being used as a mechanism for meeting some of the government cuts to our […]

The Green Book and Disabled Workers – A Basic Safety Net

Conference agrees that National Joint Council (NJC) agreements enshrined in the “Green Book” form the very basis of local government terms and conditions for all workers in the service especially disabled workers; we especially value those covered in Part 2. We value our leave arrangements and believe that our sick pay arrangements protect members who […]

Black Workers and the Local Government Pension Scheme

Conference is deeply concerned that the attacks by the Coalition Government on the Local Government Pension Scheme will have a devastating effect on UNISON’s low paid and Black members. Conference notes new research by the Runnymede Trust that finds that Black people are three times as likely as white people to experience poverty in retirement. […]

The Localism Bill

The Localism Bill contains an important measure that will impact on local government and our members which is known as the Community Right to Challenge The Community Right to Challenge is presented as a measure to encourage the involvement of charities, social enterprises or employee mutuals in the delivery of local authority services. However if […]

Stay in Local Government – No Free Schools or Gove style Academies

Conference is totally against the continuous proposals from the ConDems to make it easier to create Free schools or to have Local Authority schools become Academies and give away more and more community and tax payers assets. The Michael Gove version of so called outstanding status schools being able to become Academies is yet another […]

Social Care Integration with Health

Conference notes the proposals in Scotland to merge social care and health within the NHS. These proposals would see the transfer of Council functions in care for older people and adults transferred from local authority control and merged with health functions within local Health Boards. These proposals claim to build upon the experience of integrated […]

Living Wage

This Conference notes with concern the National Employers Bodies- NJC and SJC- failures to properly negotiate an affordable pay settlement. In 2010 the Scottish Employers side stepped the established negotiating body and imposed a 3 year settlement including a 2 year pay freeze. In reality UNISON members in local government are suffering a multi year […]

Effect of the cuts in Local Government in Rural Communities

This Conference is concerned that the coalition Government cuts to Local Authority funding are leading to substantial cuts in Local Government jobs. The loss of these jobs and services will have a disproportionate effect on some of the most vulnerable people in society, rural communities, and those low paid Local Government workers who remain in […]

A Fair Deal for Tenants and Housing Workers

This Conference notes that members working in housing face redundancy, job insecurity, attacks on terms and conditions and pay, more stressful jobs and working environments and a renewed threat of privatisation as a direct result of the Conservative-led Government’s economic and housing policies. Conference further notes: 1)Cuts in housing benefit that will lead to an […]

Privatisation and the Two-Tier Workforce

This Conference notes the increasingly open and brutal nature of the Tory-led government attacks on public sector workers. Threats to the local government two-tier code in England (whilst the Welsh Assembly Government is proposing to retain it), the warning to academy schools not to sign up to national terms and conditions and the increased drive […]

Defend Our Libraries and Library Workers

This Conference believes that library services are key source of local employment and make an essential contribution to local communities and educational achievement. Despite recent pressures, many libraries have developed innovative and imaginative ways of serving local communities. However the service across the UK has suffered many years of funding cuts and the threat of […]