Access to Immigration Advice and Representation to Recruit and Organise New Members

Once again this year, one of the most useful tools to attract migrant workers has been our immigration advice clinics. On top of the JCWI helpline, accessible through UNISON direct, we have a monthly face to face clinic with a solicitor in Northern Ireland. This continues to be a fantastic resource that has allowed us […]

Support to Complete Slavery Memorial in Hyde Park

Conference notes Memorial 2007 is a registered charity with no paid staff, run entirely by volunteers. They have been working since 2007 to erect a permanent memorial to remember enslaved Africans and their descendants. Conference welcomes the donation of £7000 made to the campaign in October 2017 by UNISON and UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis […]

Access to immigration advice and representation to recruit and organise new members

All Health Trusts in our region have recruited new nurses from the Philippines. Our activists have been working hard to try and recruit them and include them in UNISON. One of the most useful tools to attract migrant workers has been our immigration advice clinic. On top of the Joint Council for the Welfare of […]

Disabled Black Workers and the Disciplinary Process

Conference notes that Disabled Black workers are disproportionately targeted when it comes to disciplinary processes, which is often linked to racism and discrimination as well as a lack of understanding and support for the barriers faced by disabled people, including those with non-visible/non-apparent disabilities. Black disabled people are also over-represented when it comes to capability […]

Black Women and WASPI

Conference this Government has done a great injustice against all women who were born in the 1950s. By increasing the age of women’s state pensionable age and not informing them of the true impact this would have on their lives. At a time when they would be planning for their retirement in the last 2 […]

Black members and workplace mental health

Conference notes that employers are failing in their duty of care towards all staff with mental health issues, and this has a particular effect on Black Workers. Recent UNISON research found that 25 percent of local government workers in Scotland had experienced mental health issues at work, and the figure for Black Workers was 50% […]

Fair representation of Black people in recruitment process

In 2009, the Department for Work and Pensions embarked on an experiment to understand the scarcity of non white faces in top managerial post in UK’s organisations. 2,000 fake job applications were created in response to 1,000 real vacancies across multiple sectors, professions and pay grades. Similar CVs – one with a “traditional Anglo-Saxon” name […]

Young Black members and recruitment

UNISON has about 63,000 young members and of these there are approximately 5,000 Black members. 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 […]

Breaking the barriers: Black women in senior positions in the workplace

Conference believes that Black women are still hugely under-represented in senior roles at work. Research has shown that positions of power in every sector of society are dominated by men. Research conducted by Operation Black Vote and the Guardian newspaper found that only 3.5% of Black people are at the top of UK’s leading 1000 […]

Pay Negotiations

Conference recognises that the police staff pay negotiations should be approached in a different way following the extended 2017 negotiations and subsequent disappointed settlement. Conference acknowledges this was negatively influenced by the police officers Pay Review Body award and in addition, due to the timing of the consultation process, members saw UNISON colleagues in other […]

Bargaining for good Mental Health policies in Police and Justice workplaces

Conference notes that our workplaces are changing, with members in Police and Justice facing increased workloads as targets are raised year on year and working conditions often deteriorating when services are privatised. These pressures have made the importance of ensuring good mental health in our workplaces clear. At least one in four of us will […]

Police Staff Council Pay and Reward Review Part 2

Conference welcomes the start of work on the Police Staff Council Pay and Reward Review Part 2. Conference notes that: 1)The terms of reference for Part 2 of the Review cover how police staff basic pay is determined and administered by forces, the relationship between police staff pay and workforce reform in the widest sense […]

Suspension is not a Neutral Act

Conferences notes with concern that UNISON members who are under investigation by their force or the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) appear to be facing longer periods of suspension for misconduct reasons, where they are removed from their workplace, isolated from their colleagues and generally left to look after their own welfare and mental […]

Campaigning for quality clinical placements

The abolition of the NHS bursary in England took effect on 1 August 2017. The 2017 Health Conference called on the Health Service Executive Group to “monitor the quality of placements if there are additional training places” among other things. Conference notes that the finalisation of the funding arrangements for clinical placements in England happened […]

Agile or Fragile? Impact of Hot-desking on NHS Staff

Conference notes that NHS Employers are moving more towards agile working. The argument for implementing agile working is to increase productivity and to save money in the face of massive Cost Improvement Programmes forced on to NHS organisations. Conference understands that where agile working is implemented and driven as a measure to cut costs it […]