One in four workers are carer’s, the majority of these being women. 4.5 million people became unpaid carers as a result of Covid-19, which is an increase of 50% (Carers UK). This figure doesn’t include silent carers so the figures will be much higher. The lack of government awareness on the impact of caring responsibilities […]
Conference motions
The toxic debate ignited by the UK government’s public consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) underlined the importance of our union supporting and representing our trans members effectively. Attacks on trans rights have continued to escalate. In September 2021, the Council of Europe published a detailed report ‘Combating rising hate against LGBTI people […]
Conference notes that UNISON’s national women’s conference led the development of UNISON’s current policy on sex workers, which was agreed in 2010 when National Delegate Conference adopted a motion from women’s conference supporting the Nordic model, a legal model based on decriminalising the selling of sexual services while introducing a ‘sex buyers law’ criminalising those […]
Conference notes that since the introduction of the Trade Union Act, our union and the Service Group Executive (SGE) have failed to adapt to the changing dynamics of the need to win 50% turnouts. We have seen successful ballot actions fail to reach the required threshold to undertake lawful industrial action and this has left […]
Conference notes that the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill 2021, currently going through the Westminster Parliament, proposes new laws that the government has said are needed to “safeguard” free speech and academic freedom in universities. The bill would mean higher education providers – and student unions – will have a duty to “actively promote” […]
The toxic debate ignited by the United Kingdom government’s consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act underlined the importance of our union, including branches in the Higher Education Service Group, supporting and representing our trans members effectively Attacks on trans people escalated further in 2021. Groups trying to roll back the rights of trans people […]
Conference moves that, since the introduction of the Trade Union Act, our union and the Service Group Executive has failed to adapt to the changing dynamics of the need to win 50% turnouts. We have seen ballots fail to reach the required threshold to undertake lawful industrial action and this has created a legacy of […]
Conference welcomes the announcement by the UK government in July 2021 that it will introduce a new duty on employers to protect all their staff from sexual harassment at work and protections for workers harassed by clients or customers as well as colleagues. This announcement came as part of the government’s published response to the […]
The Higher Education Sector has reached what appears to be a crisis point regarding balloting for strike action over pay. Neither aggregate nor disaggregate balloting appears to be effective when considering the returns from industrial action ballots in Higher Education. Higher Education in UNISON needs to seriously consider why our members are not engaging in […]
Conference recognises that CEDAW, the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, is significant in the international human rights framework because it is exclusively devoted to gender equality. It is one of the core international human rights treaties of the UN and it requires countries that have ratified it […]
Stalking is a behaviour that is designed to intimidate, harass, threaten and pursue an unwilling target. It can consist of harassing phone calls, following the target, contacting them repeatedly, frequently tracking their movements, and more recently, unwanted and obsessional contact on social media. It can be perpetrated by anybody but is most often carried out […]
Long COVID is a term to describe the symptoms and effects of coronavirus that last longer than 12 weeks beyond the initial diagnosis. Conference notes that the Office for National Statistics reported that over a 4-week period ending 6th June 2021 almost 1 million people in the UK confirmed they were experiencing long COVID. The […]
The work done by members in the last 18 months has been simply phenomenal; or if you prefer, “unprecedented”. Members at all grades have gone that extra mile to essentially keep the Higher Education (HE) sector alive: whether that be staff in security, residential services, cleaning, estates who have stayed on campus, meaning that they […]
Conference condemns the ongoing attack on our defined benefit (DB) pension schemes. Pensions are deferred pay and any cut to our pension schemes is a direct attack on terms and conditions. Conference notes the variety in pension schemes in the Higher Education section. Multi-institution, large scale schemes such as Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), Teachers […]
Conference will recall carrying the motion ‘Trans inclusion in higher education workplaces’ in 2017 welcoming trans members’ active participation in UNISON and accepting that trans equality must be addressed in all workplaces. This motion also endorsed the recommendations of the Parliamentary Women and Equalities Committee Inquiry into Transgender Equality, which called for higher education institutions […]