UNISON and its members face unprecedented challenges with cuts in public sector spending and up to one million jobs directly under threat; wages frozen and reducing in value as inflation runs at 4% and above; pensions under threat and employers attacking terms and conditions. Branches and activists are under intense pressure responding to these attacks […]
Conference motions
Conference welcomes the 2010 Equality Act – one of the last Labour government’s final pieces of legislation. This provides a wide ranging basis for negotiating in our energy workplaces. It places a duty on every employer, whether in the private or public sector, to protect their employees from discrimination from colleagues, customers or members of […]
Conference notes employer duties to make reasonable adjustments in their management of disabled employees who are absent from work as a result of their disability. We call on energy employers to take their responsibilities seriously, and to pay specific attention to employees living with HIV. Many energy employers are scared or ignorant of HIV, and […]
Conference notes employer duties to make reasonable adjustments in their management of disabled employees who are absent from work as a result of their disability. We call on Water Environment and Transport (WET) employers to take their responsibilities seriously, and to pay specific attention to employees living with HIV. Many WET employers are scared or […]
Conference welcomes the 2010 Equality Act – one of the last Labour government’s final pieces of legislation. This provides a wide ranging basis for negotiating in our water, environment and transport (WET) workplaces. It places a duty on every employer, whether in the private or public sector, to protect their employees from discrimination from colleagues, […]
Conference calls on the National Executive Committee to build on its current campaign to expose, challenge and defeat Cameron’s twisted concept of the Big Society. The slogan “Nothing about us, without us, is for us” has been used by marginalised groups across the world who are excluded from making decisions which affect their daily lives. […]
CAMPAIGNING AGAINST LOW PAY. UNISON remains committed to gender equality within all our pay structures and we commend the highly successful on-going campaign financed and delivered by our organisation to achieve this end. At the same time low pay appears to have been largely ignored as a priority of our members. Since 1990 UNISON has […]
Health and Safety: Copper theft from Distribution Networks. As the price of scrap metal soars even higher so the growing temptations to steal scrap metal – particularly copper – increases. More Distribution Network Organisations have to deal with the real threat posed by the theft of copper both from substations and off the live Network. […]
Nuclear Energy. Let’s Consider The Options. Since the privatisation of the UK Energy Industry most energy companies have been subjected to some degree of foreign ownership where a considerable ‘’laissez faire’’ attitude to the consideration of nuclear energy exists. Edf – the French owned Energy Company in particular has expressed its commitment to furthering nuclear […]
Conference notes that the current scheme for funding branches was introduced in 2001. Since its introduction the National Executive Council has monitored the scheme and the effects of its operation, particularly in relation to the changing disparities in the reserves held by branches. Conference therefore calls on the National Executive Council to review the current […]
With this current Government being hellbent in increasing retirement ages until we drop, companies in the Water, Environment and Transport sector like others may invoke ‘capability’ to get rid of older workers. They tend to be higher paid with better terms and conditions and more likely to ‘challenge the system’ than younger workers. All workers […]
0Although most of our companies that treat waste are phasing out the paddle rotation systems in the Activated Sludge Process and replacing them with the more efficient diffused oxygen technique another hazard involving aerosol formation is entering our workplaces. This is the composting of sludge waste and green waste to sell as garden compost and […]
Most lone working systems used in the water industry are cumbersome to use and involve ringing numbers which takes time and are only effective for office or van based workers. For groups such as meter readers or samplers who are working on riverbanks and walking along lonely footpaths or in people’s homes they need an […]
Rule I 8.4 Add new point 8.4 “censure of the member;” and renumber current rules accordingly.
Many of the assets of the Water Companies are large and situated in isolated locations. This is particularly true of sewage works which were deliberately built well away from populated areas. However this isolation now put our operatives at risk as these sites have copper cable, stainless steel screens and lots of metal equipment that […]