Conference notes with disgust that many NHS employers contract Security Services from Security firms which pay staff on the national minimum wage and/or zero hours contracts often with little continuity of base. Conference notes that it is difficult to organise successfully within these employers. Conference believes that NHS employers have a duty to ensure that […]
Conference motions
Conference notes that for a relatively small number of people, the gender they are assigned at birth does not match their internal sense of where they exist in relation to being female or male – their gender identity. Some transition to live permanently and completely in the gender with which they identify. Conference further notes […]
Despite health service measures to encourage women to attend cervical cancer screening sessions, the number of women being screened has dropped significantly, with the number of women aged 25-64 dying from cervical cancer increasing by 6.4% during 2007. Research in December 2008 has also shown that there is a clear link between income and cervical […]
This conference believes that a safe working environment is a right for everyone. There is a requirement under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, the Management of Health & Safety at Work Act 2003 and the Fire Scotland Act 2005 for employers to provide adequate resources to ensure that the workplace has taken […]
This Conference reiterates the importance of health and safety at work as a key concern for our members working in the health service and continues to place this at the heart of our organising and negotiating agenda for health workers. Conference notes that needlestick injuries are a common issue of concern for many staff groups […]
Conference welcomes the progress made in effecting Motion 59 from Conference 2008. The Service Group Executive has established an effective sub group which has catalogued a series of recommendations to ensure with the compliance with the protocol raised in 2004 in line with Rule D 2.9.5. The Health sector has also fed into the overarching […]
Conference passed a motion in 2006 that asked the Service Group Executive to call on the NHS Staff Council to address the lack of increase to subsistence and overnight allowances for staff. The motion requested that as a matter of urgency, they consider: i.Raising subsistence allowances to the level they would have reached if year-on-year […]
Conference notes that under the banner of Keep the NHS Working UNISON continues to campaign against the damaging effects caused by the marketisation of NHS services and the growing role of the private sector in delivering healthcare. This is particularly important at a time of global financial crisis where governments across the world have been […]
Conference notes that across the UK, Health workers are experiencing the effects of changes to the funding and organisation of the NHS and the structures for delivering healthcare. There are increasing differences in the way in which the four UK administrations choose to organise health care and in England there is increasing use of the […]
Conference notes the recent pilot organising project in the Greater London Region and congratulates the region on their work to encourage different and innovative approaches to organising health workers. Conference notes that the project, based on the model used by the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, highlighted the dedication of health workers to […]
UNISON recognises the importance of all organisations playing their part in reducing the carbon footprint. Conference in particular notes and applauds UNISON’s “Greening the Workplace” campaign and in particular its work in promoting greener staff travel plans. UNISON notes the ·NHS Carbon Reduction Strategy and its commitment to reduce its emissions by 60 per cent […]
Conference notes that some commentators have this year argued that the public has lost confidence in nurses, even to the point of suggesting that nursing has lost its way. These sentiments, if left unchallenged, are likely to taint policy developments, such as the Next Steps Review and associated activity to develop metrics to better evaluate […]
Health Conference notes that East Lancashire PCT proposes to recommission the Supported Living Service for Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale, which will be the outsourcing of this service to either independent provider(s), or following the social enterprise model, (unless there is a successful in-house Trust bid), for some or all of the 32 houses affected by […]
The last decade has seen a significant increase in the nursing workforce; with a combination of new nurses trained, people returning to nursing, and massive overseas recruitment, whilst the opposite has occurred in midwifery. Back in 2006, due to financial difficulties in the NHS, vacancy freezes in a number of Trusts led to significant numbers […]
Conference notes the incredibly moving contribution last year from Dorothy Ngoma, of the National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi: an organisation set up with the support of UNISON. The hardships faced by our colleagues in health care in the developing world and the patients they serve are immense, complicated, saddening but avoidable with […]