Conference believes that Playwork and Playworkers are having a very difficult and threatening time due to various local authorities making cuts in play provision and services at a time when they are already grossly underfunded. Playwork has been disrespected and misunderstood despite vast evidence of the great value of the work. Cuts are being made […]
Conference motions
Conference recognises across Local Government, Further Education, Careers and Voluntary Sector that lay representatives are being inundated with increasing numbers of bullying and harassment cases. These cases are very often complex, time consuming and emotionally demanding and many lay representatives are ill equipped to deal with them. Conference therefore calls on the Service Group Executive […]
This Local Government Service Group Conference notes with concern the vast amounts of money controlled by unelected, unaccountable quangos in the UK and the influence, for good or bad, on the lives of all of our members. This is perhaps demonstrated most clearly in the case of Boards of Management, which are the governing bodies […]
Conference acknowledges that a key issue for the community and voluntary sector is funding, which affects the quality of services and the pay and rewards for staff who deliver them. In particular, community and voluntary sector organisations with short term funding arrangements are likely to experience cuts or even closure when funding stops. Conference notes […]
This Conference notes: 1)The large number of staff employed as agency staff within local government 2)That the employers in local government use agency staff as a measure to deal with what are long term recruitment and retention problems which are attributable to poor pay, terms and conditions 3)Agency staff are also used as a measure […]
Conference notes with concern the undermining of comprehensive education and the incremental and multi faceted process of privatisation and the continued marketisation of education which has taken place since 1997 through private management of state schools; privatisation of LEA functions; and the continued use of PFI. The Government’s 5 year strategy for education will speed […]
Conference is concerned that it is still not widely known that domestic violence accounts for at least 25 per cent of all violent crime, that one in four women will experience domestic violence at some time in their lives, and that every week at least two women will be killed by violent partners or ex-partners. […]
A law is already in place to ensure that women have the right to return to work after maternity leave. All too often, women are returning to work to find their job role has changed, their responsibilities and even their workplace. Although against current regulations, opportunities to return to their previous work are often denied […]
Conference welcomes campaigning materials produced by the National Women’s Committee on work life balance and flexible working. Unfortunately, Conference must also note that the application and interpretation of work life balance has been very different between and within organisations, to the detriment of women. Conference recognises that many employers do not encourage job sharing, or […]
Conference recognises that changes to the state pension system in recent years in terms of contributions, retirement age and earnings on which pensions are based puts women at an unfair disadvantage. The existing state pension alone is insufficient to provide for basic needs and requires a large number of recipients to undergo the humiliation of […]
Conference has previously noted that: 1)many women members are unaware of the opportunities open to them within UNISON; 2)not all branches are able to establish and maintain women’s groups; 3)women still face discrimination and barriers to involvement in the work of the union. Conference also recognises that Composite A, agreed at National Delegate Conference 2004, […]
This Conference welcomes the findings of the Scottish Executive’s report “When the Customer isn’t right” and the funding of a 3-year campaign to cut the number of assaults to public service workers. This campaign is the package of non-legislative measures, which support the Emergency Workers Bill currently being debated in the Scottish Parliament. This work […]
This Conference notes the horrific experiences that many people have of the immigration process in the UK and the role that the Dungavel Detention Centre in South Lanarkshire has played in this. This is not the only detention centre in the UK. Conference is particularly concerned with the experiences of the Lanarkshire Health Branch that […]
This Conference notes the creation of the Private Contractor Unit at a Strategic Level within the National Office at UNISON. Whilst it is an important move to co-ordinate the work of various parts of the UNISON structure with our relationships with the various private contractors in the NHS and across the public services this Conference […]
This conference is alarmed at emerging evidence that Learning Disability Nurse training is not being commissioned by Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) in certain parts of the country. We are convinced that there will always be a role for a registered nurse within this field of care. We are concerned, however, that because there is now, […]