“Conference notes that the publication on 5 April 2011 of the Government Consultation Document – “A State pension for the 21st Century” will have significant implications for members of all occupational pension schemes in the Water, Environment and Transport Service Group. The increased National Insurance costs to employers and employees inherent in the Government’s proposals […]
Conference motions
Conference welcomes the launch on 1 February 2011of Campaign for Better Transport’s new campaign ‘Save our Buses’. The campaign has been initiated due to the increasing number of local authorities who are looking to save money by reducing the number of socially necessary and school bus services they support because of cuts to government funding. […]
Conference recognises that the first and most important job of every UNISON branch is to get out into workplaces and talk to our members about the cuts. Until we get our members on board we cannot expect to be leading any community based campaigning. Conference also recognises that our members are active in their own […]
Conference notes with concern the growing number of staff and UNISON members transferring to the private and community sections, and acknowledges the problems faced by branches in working with members and employers in these areas. Conference recognises that UNISON must commit to organise within outsourced sections as they grow in prominence for public service delivery. […]
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 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. […]
Conference recognises and applauds the many successful and momentous campaigns of industrial action that trade unions have staged over the last thirty years. Campaigns that have succeeded despite an increasingly severe legal framework intended to stifle the ability of workers to withdraw their labour in support of a legitimate trade dispute. Conference acknowledges that taking […]
The latest reorganisations within several of the water companies seem to have turned the clock back and brought clean and waste water operatives working together and cross functioning across sites. This seems to us to be a backward step. The risk of contamination to workers and the public was a major reason why these streams […]
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 […]