Since the introduction of the Health & Social Care Act more care is expected to be provided at home, Women working in the NHS, Local Government and Voluntary Sectors are seeing the move towards a 24 hour / 7 day service being implemented at a rapid rate and more and more requests for flexible working […]
Conference motions
Increasing participation of low paid and/or part time women is not a new subject but an important one as many women find themselves on low salaries and working in part time or on zero hours contracts. UNISON women members total two thirds of the current membership and although strides have been taken to increase their […]
In UNISON more than 70% of our total membership are women. UNISON is committed to fair representation and proportionality (Rule D4.1). However, we know in the public sector where many of our members are Black Women we see very few represented at Branch, Regional and National Committee level; despite statistics nationally telling us that Black […]
Conference notes that women make up more than two thirds of the union’s membership; however figures show the active involvement of young women is low. At this time of austerity it is crucial we try to encourage more young women to take an active role in our union. The Coalition’s attack on public services have […]
Conference notes the much lower number of women that become apprentices in areas such as engineering, construction and information technology Female apprentices are more likely to end up in low paid jobs. So whilst there are apprenticeships available for women, female dominated areas tend to offer lower wages and less chance of career progression. According […]
Conference notes that research from the home office has shown that nearly 90% of severe and repeated domestic violence is experienced by women. The Home Office report on Domestic Violence, sexual assault and stalking (findings from the British Crime Survey) reported that “women are the overwhelming majority of the most heavily abused group. Among people […]
At the 2009 National Women’s Conference in Southport UNISON women welcomed the Labour Government commissioned Corston Report and its recommendations in respect of women in prisons in the UK. In particular conference welcomed the proposal for small, multifunctional non-custodial centres, which the report recommended be widely dispersed across the country. Conference is disappointed therefore that […]
At our National Women’s Conference 2013, for the first time, one of our workshops focused on understanding and challenging porn culture. Almost 100 women attended to hear the realities of the porn industry. That workshop revealed that UNISON women’s conference has yet to set a policy position on pornography. The pornography industry has pushed its […]
Since June 2010, austerity policies have reduced employment opportunities for women, who make up the majority of workers in the public sector, where wages have been frozen and jobs lost, and making it harder to combine earning a living and taking care of families. The Treasury says that “we are all in this together” yet […]
This conference notes: 1) That it is 40 years since the Equal Pay Act came into force. 2) The efforts of UNISON to champion equal pay for its women members winning a series of landmark cases and forcing employers to introduce equality proofed pay systems. However this conference further notes a) That the gender pay […]
This conference believes that child benefit is one of the most valuable and important planks of the British welfare state. Together with a national health service and maintenance of employment, a universal children’s allowance was one of the three pillars of the welfare state set out by william beveridge in his seminal 1942 report. Since […]
When a Definition is not Enough. Conference welcomes the Home Office Consultation “Strengthening the Laws on Domestic Abuse” and wants to ensure that a change in the law is affected to better reflect the definition of Domestic Abuse. However, conference notes that one in four women still experience Domestic Abuse. Conference also notes that the […]
Conference notes that, in a time of austerity and job cuts, our recruitment figures for the past year are still encouraging. We commend our activists and staff for their efforts. However, there is still a need to recruit and organise more young members in our union. Given that the majority of public sector workers are […]
Conference is deeply concerned at the impact of the rising cost of housing on UNISON members, particularly for those living in private rented accommodation. Recent research found that spiraling rental costs and stagnant wage growth mean 1.6million households are forced to spend more than half their disposable income on housing – and single women, particularly […]
Conference, fibroids are small benign tumours that grow on the walls of the womb, inside and out, and can range from a single growth to multiple. For most women they give no cause for concern and grow unnoticed. But, for others, the genetic disorder can mean heavy and painful periods and lead to fatigue and […]