The ruling determined by the House of Lords, that the Electricity Supply Pension Schemes had discriminated against part-timers by denying them access to the pension scheme, means that may UNISON members will see their pensions fully restored. This is undoubtedly excellent news, but requires positive action by our Employers. As this action is not forthcoming, […]
Conference motions
The Water and Environment Service Group Conference welcomes research undertaken at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, which found that some 60% of Call Centre staff have suffered a voice disorder. Call Centres throughout Britain are now estimated to account for 2% of the workforce and are very prevalent in employers such as United Utilities. UNISON […]
This Conference welcomes the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive by the UK Government and looks forward to a more democratic basis for the management of the nation’s water resources. Conference endorses UNISON’s response to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affiair’s consultation on the Water Framework Directive and particularly welcomes the support […]
This Water and Environment Service Group Conference notes with concern that employers such as Vertex, part of United Utilities, Cap, Gemini, Ernst &Young and Thames Water are actively considering transferring work to India. Negotiators in such Branches are advised to seek assurances from their employers that this issue will not escalate and put more British […]
We note with concern the proposals currently being considered by this ‘Socialist Government’ that employees may be permitted to work to 70 in order to provide adequate pension provisions for their retirement! This comes against a background of over 200 companies closing their final salary scheme in 2002 alone, and the knowledge that Energy Companies […]
This Water and Environment Service Group Conference welcomes the report of the independent work related road safety task group, which confirms TUC estimates of 1,000 deaths annually in work related deaths on the road. The issue of road risk is particularly relevant for employers like United Utilities that cover hundreds of miles North to South […]
Conference is concerned that we failed to achieve proportionality by the year 2000. But women in UNISON must not let our union forget this policy. It is still important that those who hold power within UNISON, or who represent it should reflect the make-up of the membership. We should continue to strive towards this target […]
Conference supports UNISON’s committment to well funded publicly owned, publicly controlled and democratically accountable public services and notes our opposition to privatisation (Positively Public Campaign). Conference notes UNISON’s ongoing campaign to put an end to the two tier workforce which results when private contractors employ new staff on different contracts, usually on far worse terms […]
Conference notes the TUC’s report “Black and Excluded” which looks at black workers and pay. The report notes that black women are disproportionately represented in certain sectors such as public health, education services and textiles, which are traditionally low paid sectors. Within these sectors black women are further disadvantaged by being concentrated in lower graded […]
Under the current legislation, a woman giving birth to a premature baby that requires hospitalisation finds she has the same amount of maternity leave as the mother of a baby that can go home. This Conference recognises the additional stress on mothers and their families trying to cope with babies who have yet to come […]
Conference is appalled at the body image of women promoted and marketed from the latter part of the 20th century as the one to which all women should aspire. Not only is this body image unachievable but more crucially it serves to support the rising sales of cosmetics and personal care products. Conference agrees that […]
Conference is concerned about the continuing invisibility of women in sport. Despite what may be considered to be saturation coverage of sporting events by terrestrial, cable and satellite television, very little of this coverage is of women’s sport. Indeed it could be argued that sport on TV has become synonymous with men’s sport, and the […]
This Conference reaffirms its commitment to support UNISON’s campaign for a woman’s right to choose In recent years there has been an upsurge of anti-abortion activity by so called “pro-life” campaigners. This has been aided and abetted by the popular media and misinformation about abortion. Some NHS Trusts no longer offer abortion after 14 weeks, […]
Statistics show that the majority of carers are women. The results of The General Household Survey 1995 (completed five yearly), the latest published in 1998 gave the following statistics: 1)One adult in 8 is a carer and one in 6 households (16%) contains a carer; 2)There are 5.7 million carers overall in Great Britain; 3)1.7 […]
This Conference is alarmed at the rapid increase of car jacking incidents taking place, often against women drivers. Many women are lone workers, collecting pensions and shopping for the elderly and housebound. This puts them at greater risk. Also, many women lead extremely busy lives, working, shopping and ferrying children around, so it’s no wonder […]