Hidden Disabilities

In the Community & Voluntary Sector which includes care provision, charities, not for profit organisations and housing associations – long term health conditions which incorporate hidden disabilities is a subject that comes up regularly in the workplace. Community Sector staff who are not aware that they meet the definition of Disability in the Equality Act […]

Inclusive workplace policies in the Community Sector

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 community service group has a majority of women members and our rules and practices to encourage women’s participation are vital […]

Family Friendly Policies in the Community & Voluntary Sector

In the Community & Voluntary Sector which includes care provision, charities, not for profit organisations and housing associations, employers must ensure provision of family-friendly policies are in place when trying to recruit and maintain staff levels of experienced and valued staff. The UK’s long hours working culture damages family life and parents are voting with […]

Social Care Green Paper

UNISON Community Conference believes any plan to improve the dire state of social care in the UK must have the fair treatment of care workers at its core. Many carers work for third sector organisations, making this a key issue for the Community Service Group. The government has said that the proposals in the forthcoming […]

Organising around Health & Safety

Conference notes with concern that across UNISON the number of accredited Health & Safety (H&S) representatives continues to decrease. This is of particular concern to the Community Service Group where, out of a collective membership of almost 75,000 members, less than 200 across all our nations/regions are accredited Health & Safety Representatives. Conference further notes […]

Women’s Refuges and Universal Credit Changes

Conference congratulates campaigners, including UNISON’s National Women’s Self-Organised Group, on their success in preventing changes to the welfare system which would have caused the closure of more women’s refuges. Proposed government changes resulting from Universal Credit could have meant women fleeing abusive partners not being able to pay for accommodation using housing benefit. This is […]

Black members and the +

Conference notes that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) self-organised group (SOG) works with inclusive, umbrella definitions of bisexual and transgender. Its bi network is for all members who feel attraction to more than one gender. Its trans network is for all types of self-identifying trans people and for members whose gender identity does […]

Non-binary inclusion

Conference welcomes the work initiated by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) group to make UNISON’s organisation, events, policies, systems and good practice advice inclusive of non-binary members. Non-binary people are people whose gender identity is not solely male or female. They may define themselves as both, neither or something different. While non-binary people […]

Black Members Mentoring Scheme – young Black members to be paired with more experienced activists

UNISON has about 63,000 young members, of whom approximately 8 percent are Black members. However, there is a noticeable and worrying shortage of young Black members and activists in UNISON. More needs to be done to recruit young Black members and to encourage them to become involved at all levels of the union. Young Black […]

“Local government cuts and impact on Black staff”

“Conference – we are all aware that Local Government and local services are at a crisis point. Demands and expectations of services are increasing year on year while central government funding is reducing. Liverpool Council will have lost 68 per cent of government funding from 2010-2020, the Council has prioritised frontline services, protecting vulnerable adults […]

Immigration Costs – Impact on Black Members standing for Local Council

Conference congratulates UNISON Labour Link for its work in supporting Black activists in standing for elected positions within the UK Labour Party. Conference notes at the 2013 Census of Local Authority Councillors, there were roughly 20,000 councillors across the UK. Conference further notes that our elected representatives should reflect the communities they seek to serve, […]

Defending free movement of people and immigrant rights

Conference notes: 1)The rights of immigrants has become decisive to the direction of our society. 2)Unison’s 2018 NDC rightly adopted a motion on Brexit from the National Executive Council that committed the union to defending the free movement of people to live, work, study and join their families in Britain; 3)The Brexit referendum was dominated […]

Institutional discrimination in mental health services – the impact on Black disabled workers

Conference notes that Black people in the UK are disproportionately more likely to be detained against their will as a result of mental ill health. The United Nations Committee for the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD) 2017 report expressed concerns about the high number of Black disabled people compulsorily detained and treated against their […]

Black Children and Exclusions

Conference we all know that as Black people we are disproportionately represented within all aspects of society, this includes education and particularly, exclusions of Black pupils. The number of permanent exclusions across all state-funded primary, secondary and special schools has increased from 5,795 in 2014/15 to 6,685 in 2015/16. This corresponds to around 35.2 permanent […]

Bargaining and campaigning for race equality

Conference notes that The Race Relations Act came into force on 8th December 1965 in Britain, to promote non-discrimination and equality however fifty one years after its creation we note a lack of significant progress in society as members continue to cite numerous blatant examples of racism in our society and workplaces. The equality act […]