The conference notes that the Coalition Government launched the Green Deal in Jan 2013. This supposed deal was introduced to encourage households to make their homes more energy efficient by having works carried out with little upfront cost but instead paying the costs via energy bills over a many years. As well as the potential […]
Conference motions
Conference notes the critical role that both Ofwat and Ofgem play in regulating the privatised utilities. It also notes that despite the role of the regulator, profits within the utility businesses have increased to record levels making the owners and key executives very wealthy. Despite the increased profits members have seen their pay and conditions […]
UNISON has a proud and proven track record in campaigning against consumer exploitation by UK energy companies. We have had to make the difficult and often divisive arguments in speaking up for consumers against the vested interest of huge power company giants. This has often placed us in the difficult position of criticizing our employers […]
Conference welcomes the publication last year of the UNISON Call Centre Charter, which seeks to establish a decency agenda, allowing members to work effectively and efficiently in a safe working environment. The Charter was based on research on call centres and call handling operations by Professor Charlotte Rayner of Portsmouth University, who has a distinguished […]
Conference welcomes progress made by UNISON over many years in negotiating for equality in our energy workplaces. However, conference is concerned that equality considerations fall down the agenda in the face of cuts, reorganisations and redundancies. Conference is further concerned that transgender workers face particularly extreme discrimination when seeking work and once in work. To […]
Conference notes that the Government is proposing to allow companies to override the pension protections which were implemented when the Electricity Industry was privatised. These guarantees were one of the few protections won by trade unions during the Thatcher government’s relentless drive to privatise public services. The 1990 Electricity Regulations prevent private employers from reducing […]
This Conference notes that the Government is proposing to allow companies to override the pension protections which were implemented when the Electricity Industry was privatised. These guarantees were one of the few protections won by trade unions during the Thatcher government’s relentless drive to privatise public services. The 1990 Electricity Regulations prevent private employers from […]
Conference welcomes the UNISON call centre charter, launched in 2012, which calls on all employers who have UNISON members working in a call centre or in call handling operations to commit to improving the standards which those staff operate under. This includes ensuring that staff are able to take sufficient breaks away from the workstation […]
Conference is concerned about increased outsourcing and hidden privatisation in local government and the impact on disabled workers. Local authorities who oppose privatisation are looking at mutuals, cooperatives and social enterprises, all privatisation by another name. Public services by their nature are under-provided by the market because they do not make a profit. They are […]
Conference recognises the success of the campaigns to achieve the Living Wage in councils and notes that the pay offer from the Scottish employers for 2013 included a Living Wage for all 32 councils in Scotland of a Living wage of at least £7.50. Conference notes however that not all councils have agreed to pay […]
Local government employees have had their pay and in some instances increments frozen for the past three years. Councils like Sheffield are planning to dismiss and re-engage staff to force through yet another pay and increment freeze. Black staff employed in the public sector are concentrated in the lower grades and the impact on such […]
UNISON’s initial Freedom of Information (FOI) exercise conducted in the Greater London, West Midlands and North West regions has revealed that a significant number of local authorities are shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs across the UK. Those FOIs show the number of Black staff that have been made redundant in the financial year 2010/2011. […]
Conference notes that the Tory-led government’s onslaught on public service workers and their failed austerity measures have led to worsening terms and conditions for local government workers. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers are affected like any other local government worker as pay and conditions are undermined. But the impact on terms and conditions […]
Conference commends the proposal to set a “gender agenda” in local government pay negotiations. The government’s austerity measures and the pay freeze in local government have impacted disproportionally on women, not least because three quarters of workers in local government are women and more than half of these women work part-time, in low paid jobs […]
Conference is totally against the setting up of Free Schools and Studio Schools. Unlike Academies which are existing schools that have changed status; Free Schools and Studio Schools are brand new schools. Often these new schools are located next to established existing community schools and threaten their very existence. In the majority of cases staff […]