Conference notes the Government’s disgraceful and hypocritical failure to ensure that the 2003 Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations will redress the pensions discrimination suffered by lesbians and gay men in public sector pay schemes. The Government has argued that this is because of the pension schemes cannot ‘afford’ to pay lesbians and gay men equal […]
Conference motions
This Conference expresses its concern at Glasgow City Council’s recent leaflet “Prostitution – Changing the Outlook”. This leaflet is being circulated to all staff in the council and contains information on the council’s policy on prostitution and the role which staff have to play in tackling the issue of street prostitution in Glasgow. The text […]
Conference notes with concern that reported incidents of domestic violence are increasing, and that these figures reflect an increase in the incidences of same-sex domestic violence. Conference therefore calls on the National Lesbian and Gay Committee to; 1.urge the National Executive Council (NEC) to issue guidelines to Branches to ensure that issues of same-sex violence […]
Conference supports the view that all UNISON disabled members have a fair and equal opportunity to apply for and sit on public bodies, tribunals and public boards. It recognises that the present Nolan Rules can discriminate against working people and more so if they are disabled. Conference also recognises the full useful knowledge and experiences […]
Conference is concerned at the lack of UNISON activities to celebrate European Year of the Disabled 2003, both in some regions and particularly, nationally. This is an important event for disabled people and UNISON must be at the forefront of it. Conference agrees that a high profile event should be held nationally to publicise disabled […]
Conference deplores the action of some UNISON branches using branch rules to discriminate against self-organised groups by preventing them from participating fully in branch activities. Conference calls upon the National Disabled Members’ Committee, in conjunction with other self-organised groups, to liaise with branch disabled officers, equalities officers and other self-organised groups to compile a report […]
Where not achieved in the Criminal Justice Bill now going through Parliament or in any current or future legislation of the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, UNISON will continue to campaign for: 1)disability hate crime to attract the same extra penalty as race hate crime; 2)full access for disabled people to all […]
Conference is concerned that we failed to achieve proportionality by the year 2000. But women in UNISON must not let our union forget this policy. It is still important that those who hold power within UNISON, or who represent it should reflect the make-up of the membership. We should continue to strive towards this target […]
Conference notes the TUC’s report “Black and Excluded” which looks at black workers and pay. The report notes that black women are disproportionately represented in certain sectors such as public health, education services and textiles, which are traditionally low paid sectors. Within these sectors black women are further disadvantaged by being concentrated in lower graded […]
Conference supports UNISON’s committment to well funded publicly owned, publicly controlled and democratically accountable public services and notes our opposition to privatisation (Positively Public Campaign). Conference notes UNISON’s ongoing campaign to put an end to the two tier workforce which results when private contractors employ new staff on different contracts, usually on far worse terms […]
Under the current legislation, a woman giving birth to a premature baby that requires hospitalisation finds she has the same amount of maternity leave as the mother of a baby that can go home. This Conference recognises the additional stress on mothers and their families trying to cope with babies who have yet to come […]
Conference is appalled at the body image of women promoted and marketed from the latter part of the 20th century as the one to which all women should aspire. Not only is this body image unachievable but more crucially it serves to support the rising sales of cosmetics and personal care products. Conference agrees that […]
Conference is concerned about the continuing invisibility of women in sport. Despite what may be considered to be saturation coverage of sporting events by terrestrial, cable and satellite television, very little of this coverage is of women’s sport. Indeed it could be argued that sport on TV has become synonymous with men’s sport, and the […]
This Conference reaffirms its commitment to support UNISON’s campaign for a woman’s right to choose In recent years there has been an upsurge of anti-abortion activity by so called “pro-life” campaigners. This has been aided and abetted by the popular media and misinformation about abortion. Some NHS Trusts no longer offer abortion after 14 weeks, […]
Statistics show that the majority of carers are women. The results of The General Household Survey 1995 (completed five yearly), the latest published in 1998 gave the following statistics: 1)One adult in 8 is a carer and one in 6 households (16%) contains a carer; 2)There are 5.7 million carers overall in Great Britain; 3)1.7 […]