Improving UNISON Structures

Conference notes the ongoing progress to make UNISON structures fit for purpose and to ensure that all of our members regardless of where they work have an equally strong voice in their union. Conference agrees that devolution, the ongoing public service reform and outsourcing agenda continue to change the bargaining landscape for many of our […]

Rights of public service workers to organise and collective bargaining

The International Trade Union Confederations’s (ITUC) annual survey of the violation of trade union rights for 2007 documented details of workers’ rights violations in 138 countries. Serious and systematic harassment and intimidation was reported in 63 countries. Seventy-three unionists were sent to prison in 2007, including 40 in Iran alone, where systematic suppression of workers […]

Funding the Equal Pay Challenge

Conference continues to believe that a principle priority for UNISON is combating pay inequalities and securing equal pay for work of equal value for all our members, in properly evaluated and negotiated framework agreements. Conference notes that establishing equal pay for our members was one of the founding principles of the union. Conference recognises that […]

RULE C 5.2 AND C 5.5 BECOMING A MEMBER

Rule C 5 Delete existing rule C.5.2 and replace with: “Rule C.5.2 Providing that the applicant is eligible for membership within these Rules and has not previously been expelled or barred from membership of the union, or has previously ceased to be a member whilst a disciplinary charge against her/him was outstanding, she/he shall become […]

D 3.1.1 SERVICE GROUPS

Rule D 3.1.1 Delete “Water and Environment” and “Transport”, and insert “Water, Environment and Transport”

D 3.1.1 SERVICE GROUPS

Rule D 3.1.1 Add to list of service groups before “Energy”, “Community” Delete Rule D.1.3.2.2 and D3.7.4 and renumber accordingly

D 3.1.1 SERVICE GROUPS

Rule D 3.1.1 Delete “Police Staff” and insert “Police and Justice”

NHS charges

Conference congratulates the devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland on progressive reforms they have made. In particular we commend their abolition of car parking fees at NHS sites and the abolition of NHS prescription charges. Both these charges are in effect a tax on sickness and can amount to considerable sums. These moves are a […]

Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer is the fourth most common cause of death from cancer amongst women in the UK. Every year about six thousand women in the UK are diagnosed with this disease. The majority of these cases have only a few symptoms, which are treated as other conditions until finally being diagnosed as ovarian cancer. If […]

Domestic Violence/Abuse

Conference is appalled to note that, according to Home Office statistics, domestic violence accounts for one in six violent incidents as measured by the British Crime Survey, with 85% of those victims being women, and one in four victims having been assaulted three or more times. The government’s national domestic violence delivery plan highlighted action […]

Promoting Awareness of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in the workplace and in UNISON

Conference notes the great strides that UNISON has been able to make supporting disabled people’s rights to employment, goods, facilities and services by using the Disability Discrimination Act’s (DDA) provisions to challenge discriminatory actions. We also applaud UNISON’s commitment to promote equality within the union through its own equality scheme. More recently disabled people have […]

The Recession and Disabled People

Conference applauds the work undertaken by UNISON to highlight the plight of disabled workers during the recession, in particular for the union’s support for the lobby of Parliament on 3 March 2009. Disabled workers face greater hardship than non disabled people with fewer chances of securing alternative work; our government cannot go back into business […]

Non-Discrimination in Publicly Funded Services

Conference notes that some high profile media coverage of a 2008 employment tribunal judgment suggested that civil registrars were not obliged to carry out civil partnership ceremonies if that contravened their religious beliefs, despite the fact that employment tribunals do not set a legal precedent. The successful appeal against this ruling did not receive anything […]

Developing our committment to apprentices

Conference believes that the success of the government’s plan for a substantial expansion of apprenticeship schemes and places is dependent on schemes being introduced on a negotiated basis which provide high-quality training, with decent apprenticeship pay, and which do not seek to substitute for existing jobs. Conference also believes that such schemes offer the opportunity […]

Increase in the basic state pension and restoration of the link to earnings

Conference regrets that in his March 2008 Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, again failed to increase the basic state pension to restore its value if the link to average earnings had not been broken by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government. Pensioners should have an immediate rise now to restore the pension value and […]