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 […]
Conference motions
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
Conference notes the success of UNISON’s Year of Disabled Workers 2022. Although the year is not yet complete, we have seen renewed focus on the experience of disabled members in our union, in the workplace and in society, including those in the Community service group. We have used the year to highlight the important contribution […]
Conference notes that comments made by Keir Starmer on 28 October in a Mumsnet interview regarding trans youth healthcare have caused significant concern In response to a question from a Mumsnet user about the interim report by Dr Hilary Cass on the provision of trans youth healthcare, Starmer focussed on the idea of consent, saying: […]
Conference notes that “‘Staying Alive’: The Impact of ‘Austerity Cuts’ on the LGBT Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) in England and Wales” a Trade Union Congress (TUC) – funded research report by Fiona Colgan et al at London Metropolitan University in 2014 was the last significant analysis of the state of the sector in relation […]
Conference notes with grave concern the on-going staffing crisis across the social care sector. With social care organisations haemorrhaging staff and 165,000 vacancies remaining unfilled (skills for care Oct 2022), the companies providing these essential services are on their knees, and those on the front line are feeling it the most. Looking at the current […]
Conference notes the introduction into Parliament of Employment and Trade Union Rights (Dismissal and Re-engagement) Bill by Barry Gardiner MP and backed by the Institute of Employment Rights which sought to amend the law relating to workplace information and consultation, employment protection and trade union rights in order to provide safeguards for workers against dismissal […]
Conference notes that it is a UNISON Rule Book commitment to establish Regional Community Service Group Committees under Rule D3.6. The criteria for representation being: Branches with 100+ Community members are entitled to nominate 2 delegates to the committee (at least one of whom must be female). Branches with 50-100 Community members are entitled to […]
Conference notes the October 2022 data produced by Skills for Care on social care workers shows at least 165,000 vacancies across adult social care providers at the end of 2021-22. This report identifies that staff vacancies in social care in England increased by a record 52% during that year, with 1 in 10 posts vacant […]
Conference notes the publication of the “The All Work and Low Pay” report produced by the Living Wage Foundation in Summer 2022 which identified that one in seven charity workers are paid below the real living wage, a lower rate than across the economy as a whole, despite a higher proportion of charity sector workers […]
Universities are autonomous organisations, delivering higher education and research, with the freedom to manage their own finances, subject to regulation. Each institution is different, with a complex mix of income streams depending on the nature of the students it teaches, the quantity and perceived quality of research it conducts to drive research income, and the […]
Higher education pay has fallen behind. Since 2009 our pay has lost around 28% of its value as a result of below inflation cost-of-living rises year on year. The extreme increase in prices during 2022 has brought this to a crisis point, and UNISON members working in Higher Education are facing real hardship as a […]