Accessible Domestic Abuse Services

Conference notes that disabled women are more likely to be subjected to domestic abuse than non-disabled women. Domestic abuse can include physical, sexual or emotional abuse – as well as the withdrawal of care from disabled women who require it and threats to ‘out’ LGBT+ women to their friends and families. According to the Women’s […]

Towards a more inclusive disabled members LGBT+ caucus

Conference notes that at National Delegate Conference 2019 delegates unanimously agreed to change UNISON’s rule book so that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) self organised group will now be called the LGBT+ self organised group. Conference notes that this has implications for our disabled members self organised group because we have an LGBT […]

Celebrating our Black disabled caucus

Conference notes that the Black caucus within our National Disabled Members Self Organised Group (SOG) reflects our belief that under-represented groups within our union and within society should have a space to organise and to agree their own priorities so that they can feed in to the work of the SOG and ensure that their […]

Awareness of Access To Work

Access to Work aims to support disabled people start or stay in work, providing financial and practical support. We believe awareness of this programme is lacking amongst some members, especially if you’re new to disability, meaning our members may not be getting the support they need to stay in work and reach their potential. Conference […]

Meaningful Annual Disability Employment Statistics

Conference notes that in November 2018 the Department of Work and Pensions and the Department of Health & Social Care jointly launched a Framework on the Voluntary Reporting on Disability, Mental Health and Wellbeing. This compliments the Public Sector Equality Duty. The Framework is a voluntary scheme – aimed at large employers with over 250 […]

Accessible Public Toilets

Conference notes that less than 10% of people who meet the Equality Act 2010 definition of a disability actually use a wheelchair which is the traditional symbol for an accessible toilet. For a range of reasons many disabled people face barriers to using a standard toilet. Conference notes that Council spending cuts have led to […]

Policies on dealing with abusive customers in call centres

Conference notes that many energy members work in call centres and operational centres where they take calls from operational colleagues and customers. While most callers are reasonable, there is always a proportion that are unreasonable and some who are extremely abusive. In workplaces with generally high levels of stress, this can be intolerable. People who […]

Feeling Good in the WET Service Group

Conference welcomes the fact that more conversations are being held around the issues of mental health, however, for many it is still a taboo subject and for others a painful subject. This however does not stop the effect it has on people, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, beliefs. Mental health does not discriminate and […]

The continuing drift from RPI to CPI and the impact on pay.

This conference notes the continuing desire by employers in the water sector to move away from RPI and embrace CPI when negotiating pay. Excuses abound, from the employers, to explain the reasoning to change to CPI. One of the main excuses being given, is the regulator Ofwat’s changes to the method used to increase consumer […]

LGBT Mental Health Workplace Initiatives

Conference notes that there have been some staff wellbeing initiatives by employers in the Water, Environment and Transport service group related to mental health support, these are not consistent and there is still further to go for employee wellbeing. Conference recognises that at least one in four of us will experience mental health problems at […]

UNISON Activists and Mental Health

Conference is concerned to note that increasingly both branch activists and lay officials are finding themselves suffering extreme stress and anxiety when dealing with the levels of case load that they are presented with. In some cases representatives in WET have been placed under extreme personal pressure by employers. Conference notes that these pressures on […]

Training Mental Health First-Aiders in Energy Workplaces

Conference notes that since 1981, workplaces have been required to provide adequate and appropriate first aid equipment, facilities and people, to ensure that employees can be given immediate help if they are injured or taken ill at work. Yet in 2019, there is still no statutory requirement for employers to provide mental health first aid […]

Fair representation of Black people in the recruitment process

In 2009, the Department for Work and Pensions embarked on an experiment to understand the scarcity of non-white faces in top managerial posts in UK organisations. 2,000 fake job applications were created in response to 1,000 real vacancies across multiple sectors, professions and pay grades. Similar CVs – one with a “traditional Anglo-Saxon” name and […]

Utility and Energy Industry Privatisation

Many members within the above industries no longer have the luxury of a Defined Benefits (DB) pension and are relying on a much inferior Direct Contributions Pension scheme for their retirement. A lot of these workers have used the Share Save and Share Incentive Plan (SIP) share schemes within these companies to subsidise the shortfall […]

Building and Strengthening Black Community links

Conference notes the national Black members’ committee ‘Creating, Building, and Strengthening Black Community link motion was debated with much support from other delegates at the 2018 Community conference and was carried along with the amendment submitted by the Community Service Group Executive. However the National Black Member’s Committee is concerned that limited work has commenced […]