Conference will recall that prior to the covid crisis there had been a series of attacks on older people’s entitlements and standards of living including: 1)The Taxpayers’ Alliance’s report, Pensions Inequality, issued in August 2018 calling for an end to defined benefit pensions for public service workers; the Taxpayers’ Alliance has since called for the […]
Conference motions
THE IMPACT OF SERVICES MOVING ONLINE ON OLDER/ELDERLY PEOPLE Conference notes the inexorable drift towards services and activities being online which has been markedly accelerated during the covid pandemic and its impact on the older demographic. New analysis from Age UK shows that the pandemic has not in fact produced a sea change in older […]
This conference notes with concern the findings of the survey carried out in December 2020 by the Birmingham UNISON Retired Members Section, that during the pandemic it has been increasingly difficult to access GP services. As the survey has indicated, there is a major problem with the more vulnerable elderly section of society – where […]
Conference notes that – 1)Public service pension schemes pay pensions to widows of male scheme members in respect of contributions since 1972; 2)As a result of a Supreme Court decision in 2017, scheme members’ surviving same – sex spouses and civil partners, irrespective of gender, are now treated the same as widows; but 3)Widowers of […]
Conference notes that in 2018/19, the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) gender pension gap – the percentage difference in average gross pension income of women pensioners compared to men – stood at 40.3%. Conference also notes this was the second year running the gap had widened. An earlier trend of gradually diminishing pension inequality appears to have […]
This Conference notes that during a time of international pandemic, once more local government workers rose to the occasion alongside other key workers in the NHS, care, transport and retail to keep essential services running and to support lockdown policies that were the front line in reducing infections and allowing time for a vaccine to […]
Conference welcomes the increased recognition that mental health is a serious workplace issue for staff working in the Water, Environment and Transport sectors. It also has a strong equalities dimension. Even without the impact of the pandemic, people vulnerable to discrimination face worse levels of mental ill health. In the wider community, around 1 in […]
This conference notes that the UK Government has previously announced an acceleration on the progress to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Previously, the Committee on Climate Change had looked at the possibility of reaching net zero earlier but concluded that this was not credible. They acknowledged it could be possible in the […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about many health, safety, and wellbeing issues for WET Service Group members. We ask that this Service Group Conference aims to secure a post-pandemic working environment that supports the needs of all our members, on a COVID secure basis, with employers meeting their full range of health and safety responsibilities […]
This conference notes that the health, safety and wellbeing of workers providing services in the Water, Environment and Transport Sectors � as well as in the other more prominent sectors such as Health – has been paramount to UNISON during the COVID-19 pandemic, and will continue to be into the future. The Water Industry Sector […]
Conference notes that many disabled staff in WET workplaces have previously requested to work from home as a reasonable adjustment and been refused. However, COVID-19 has sparked a revolution in home working and as a union we need to build on the positives for disabled workers whilst also guarding against any detrimental impact. UNISON�s National […]
�We�re all in this together� has become a rallying cry during the coronavirus pandemic. While it is true that COVID-19 has affected everyone in some way, the magnitude and nature of the impact has been anything but universal. Evidence to date suggests that Black workers face much more economic and health insecurity from COVID-19 than […]
Conference is concerned that although some employers in the Water, Environment and Transport sector have worked hard to reduce their gender pay gap – notably Thames Water – reports for 2019 (reporting was suspended in 2020 due to the pandemic) revealed others have mean average gaps which are significantly higher than the industry�s average of […]
Conference notes that local government used to be an equality trail-blazer in terms and conditions for staff and also in the quality, accessibility and inclusivity of local government service delivery. This, coupled with a strong public service ethos, has contributed over the years to high numbers of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender plus (LGBT+) workers, […]
Conference acknowledges that even before Covid-19, equality was increasingly being seen as a luxury in many local government workplaces, with many employers barely abiding by the law. We must live up to our proud history and negotiate for LGBT+ equality to be included in all local government policies, practices and agreements. Conference recognises that local […]