This Conference recognises that older people find it difficult to afford the cost of National Health Service (NHS) dental care. Regular dental checks can detect other more serious medical conditions, such as oral cancer and heart disease, and, as such, act as preventative health screening. Conference, therefore, calls upon the National Retired Members’ Committee to […]
Conference motions
Conference acknowledges that early identification and diagnosis of a range of health conditions e.g. heart and lung problems, diabetes, kidney disease and early cancers can have a significant impact and increase the chance of success of subsequent treatments. Health professionals widely agree that early diagnosis of many conditions can be of major personal health benefit […]
Insert a new rule after D 6.2.4: “D 6.2.5 The National Young Members Forum may establish a national conference of young members from branch and regional groups.”
Conference notes that at the time of writing, the UK is still set to leave the EU on 29 March but that the terms of its exit and whether it will exit at all remains very unclear. Conference believes that regardless of whether the UK has left the EU on 29 March under the terms […]
Facility time is a fundamental right of trade unionists in the workplace. It ensures we support our members at disciplinaries, and that policies of the organisation’s our members work for are scrutinised and negotiated effectively. UNISON already provides brilliant resources for our branches such as the ‘Facility Time, Guidance for branches’ document most recently revised […]
There is an increasing demand for care in the UK. The proportion of elderly people requiring care in the future will place even more demands on a service that is already struggling. With year-on-year cuts to local councils, over 1.8 million people are already denied access to care. This will, as time passes, create an […]
Conference notes with deep concern research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that too many women continue to experience pregnancy and maternity discrimination in UK workplaces. According to the EHRC research, of the 3,034 employers surveyed: 1)70% said women should declare up front about pregnancy during recruitment; 2)25% said it was reasonable during […]
Conference notes that eligibility and assessment processes for welfare benefits and public services are rapidly moving to online platforms. For example, applications for Council Tax Support, Housing Benefit, Access to Work, and Universal Credit almost invariably need to be made online. Conversely, Personal Independence Payments (PIP) can only be applied for using a paper form, […]
With the appointment by the government of a minister who is tasked with reducing suicide rates nationally, the need for all stewards to be trained in suicide awareness has never been clearer. Suicide is everyone’s business and touches families whatever their class, age, gender or family situation. Last year nationally 6,213 people completed suicide and […]
Conference notes that austerity has seen local authority spending on in work training slashed as staff development budgets have been cut back to the bone. In social care private sector providers focused on making profits provide the bare minimum of opportunities for training. There has also been a shift to online and distance learning and […]
B 2.3 Delete “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members” and insert “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender plus (LGBT+) members” And D 5.1.4 Delete “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members” and insert “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender plus (LGBT+) members”
Conference celebrates UNISON’s work over the past 25 years to promote women’s equality and participation and to tackle sexism and sex discrimination at work, in our union and across society. Like other service groups, the local government service group has a majority of women members and our rules and practices to encourage women’s participation are […]
Conference recognises the real threat of climate change to our planet. According to the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, (IPCC) human activities are estimated to have caused approximately 1C of global warming above pre-industrial levels. The Paris Agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change […]
Conference notes that cuts to local government services are biting ever deeper and deplores the damage they are wreaking on local services and our members who work in them. The impact on our members includes job losses, increasing severity and complexity of service user needs, and reduced pay and terms and conditions. Our members are […]
UNISON Northern Ireland is pressing for greater transparency in the Education Funding Formula. The funding of education in our region is as complex as the governance arrangements. The total amount to be spent on schools is called general schools budget and is made up of three categories of spending: 1)The aggregated school budget available to […]