Conference notes the continuing failure of the government to invest and maintain a wide variety of public services in the UK, with almost every institution showing signs of underinvestment in systems, infrastructure, and staffing. Most of the public services delivered by UNISON members are showing sign of this strain despite often heroic efforts to maintain […]
Conference motions
Higher Education pay has fallen behind. Since 2009 our pay has lost around 28% of its value as a result of successive below inflation cost-of-living rises, year on year. The extreme increase in prices during 2022 and 2023 has brought this to a crisis point, and UNISON members working in Higher Education are facing real […]
Every year, UCEA representing the employers in the HE sector pay negotiations, state that while some universities are wealthy, there are universities that would struggle, indeed may be forced into considering redundancies, the closure of departments and so on, should a significant pay settlement be forced upon them. For this reason, staff salaries have been […]
It is clear that while UCEA as a group are doggedly refusing to admit there is a problem with pay in the sector – and given that UCEA members / advisors are getting their information from employees “over the top of the national pay scale” perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised – individual HEIs are increasingly […]
University staff at all grades on the agreed pay scale have seen the value put on their work diminish year after year, not by some form of “natural process”, not by erosion or gravity, but by deliberate choices made year on year by the people running the universities: they pay us less, as the sectors […]
This conference notes that the Year of Black Workers, and its focus of ‘Establishing Legacy to Generate Change’, is not the change we seek, it is merely the opportunity to generate change. Black Workers across our society often find themselves in low-paid, insecure work, with poor terms and conditions. Despite the Westminster Government denying that […]
Conference condemns the comments of the Home Secretary and her attack on LGBT+, women asylum seekers and multiculturalism in her speech 26th September 2023. As the government department responsible for policing, we believe that this rhetoric undermines the confidence in policing and risks damaging the hard work and effort of generations of Police Staff, who […]
Conference notes: On 23rd June 2023 the Probation unions, UNISON, Napo and GMB/SCOOP submitted a pay-reopener claim of an increase in the value of all pay points of 12% effective from 1 April 2023 and an unconsolidated payment of £2,500. Despite repeated promises over many weeks the employer has failed to respond to this pay […]
Conference notes that the workforce in the community sector especially in the social care sector is overwhelmingly female. The additional pressures on women working in the community sector, especially low paid women have seen almost 3 in 5 of these women experience poor mental health where work is a contributing factor. However, for Black women […]
Despite the Equal Pay Act coming into force over 50 years ago, there remains a persistent gender pay gap on university campuses across the United Kingdom. According to the Times Higher Education (THE), the mean pay gap in Higher Education in 2020 – 2021 was 14.8% which was higher than the UK average of 11.3%. […]
Conference – with the publication of the Casey review, and with the first national Police National Database (PND) vetting of all staff and officers recently completed, the omission of the requirement to declare masonic membership still manages to duck the bullet. All staff and officers have to regularly complete vetting forms and declare membership or […]
Conference notes with concern the decision in 2022 by London Pride that the Metropolitan Police could not march at Pride in uniform, and the decision in 2023 by Brighton Pride that Kent Police would not be welcome to march this year. However, Conference also notes the Baroness Casey Review into the Metropolitan Police reported “institutional […]
Conference notes that on the 7th June 2023 the East of England Probation area signed up to UNISON Eastern Region’s Anti-Racism Charter. Whilst the Probation Service has a comprehensive work plan in relation to actions identified in a joint union employer survey on race, the feedback from members has been that the actions have taken […]
Conference notes with concern the delicate balance of safely and securely caring for the welfare of detainees in a dignified and professional manner. The temporary loss of liberty whilst being detained coupled with the circumstances of arrest too often leads to irrational behaviour and self-harm whilst being confined. Tried and tested risk adverse methods of […]
Conference notes that many members working in front line roles are regularly exposed to traumatic working conditions. Members who are in roles that are exposed to new or additional trauma may therefore have a higher risk of mental health problems such as depression and anxiety and possibly Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which could result in […]