Remember Enhanced Voluntary Redundancy (EVR) and Other Broken Promises?

During Transforming Rehabilitation (TR1) UNISON worked extremely hard to protect staff during the split and staff transfer. We managed to secure a staff transfer agreement to ensure additional protections to the staff transfer scheme and an Enhanced Voluntary Redundancy scheme to remunerate staff who were asked to leave the Probation Service. We are now facing […]

Facility Time Shambles

Effective organisation. Effective representation and effective negotiation can only take place when we have effective trade union facility time agreements. We have again seen the Private Sector Probation Services put the National Probation Service (NPS) to shame, with their facility time agreements and their negotiating structures. The NPS are fettered by Cabinet Office Guidelines on […]

Shame on YOU, End Low Pay in Probation NOW

When it comes to low pay, the Private Sector Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) have put the Civil Service to shame. The vast majority of CRCs have abolished Band 1. They have got rid of a pay scale that would have paid staff less than the minimum wage. The National Probation Service (NPS) on the other […]

Misconduct Interviews

Police Staff who are subject to a misconduct investigations will be interviewed by Professional Standards Department (PSD) as part of the investigation. These interviews are often undertaken by detectives who are serving police officers and will be very similar if not the same as a criminal interview. These interviews will often be recorded and later […]

Maintaining the pressure on sexual harassment

Conference commends the Service Group Executive (SGE) for its successful campaign on eliminating Sexual Harassment in policing. Working in partnership with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), the union has been able to establish strict guidelines and standards for the police service. As with most things, there is often a flurry of activity and interest […]

How many bites of the cherry?

Police Staff are probably under the most stringent scrutiny and procedural process than any other employees. At present we can be subject to a criminal investigation, an Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation, a misconduct procedure and vetting all at the same time. If an employee is acquitted through criminal process, they will usually […]

Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) Investigations

IOPC investigations continue to be an area of concern to our members. Very often the involvement in these investigations is a cause of great anxiety. Members are always concerned and worried about the potential outcomes of such investigations which is often the cause of the anxiety. Reassurance is of vital importance to members who are […]

Dealing with the effects of post-traumatic stress

Many of our members work with the public in the best and worst of situations. Our call management staff can be dealing with a missing from home one minute and a murder the next. Very often our call management staff are the first port of call for those intending to complete a suicide and the […]

Race Religion and Belief a new strategy

There is now more than ever a need for our service group to refresh its strategy on Race Religion and Belief. The representation of BAME members in branches, regions and national bodies is woefully poor. UNISON operates a system of self-organised groups for Women, Black members, Disabled members and LGBT members. This system is well […]

Routine NHS Health Checks for Older Persons “Prevention is better than Cure”

Conference acknowledges that early identification and diagnosis of a range of health conditions e.g. heart and lung problems, diabetes, kidney disease and early cancers can have a significant impact and increase the chance of success of subsequent treatments. Health professionals widely agree that early diagnosis of many conditions can be of major personal health benefit […]

Rule D Young Members’ Organisation

Insert a new rule after D 6.2.4: “D 6.2.5 The National Young Members Forum may establish a national conference of young members from branch and regional groups.”

Turbulent Times Indeed! Training for UNISON Stewards and representatives on reorganisations, redundancies and TUPE

The Energy sector is undergoing an unprecedented level of change, arguably the most change since the privatisation of the sector in the 1980’s. The sector is facing real challenges from competition within the sector; political challenges from all political parties and the media; the need to meet OFGEM requirements; opinions from the consumers whose switching […]

EU Exit and Protecting the Peace Process

Conference notes that at the time of writing, the UK is still set to leave the EU on 29 March but that the terms of its exit and whether it will exit at all remains very unclear. Conference believes that regardless of whether the UK has left the EU on 29 March under the terms […]

Policies on dealing with abusive customers in call centres

Conference notes that many energy members work in call centres and operational centres where they take calls from operational colleagues and customers. While most callers are reasonable, there is always a proportion that are unreasonable and some who are extremely abusive. In workplaces with generally high levels of stress, this can be intolerable. People who […]

Young Member’s Facility Time

Facility time is a fundamental right of trade unionists in the workplace. It ensures we support our members at disciplinaries, and that policies of the organisation’s our members work for are scrutinised and negotiated effectively. UNISON already provides brilliant resources for our branches such as the ‘Facility Time, Guidance for branches’ document most recently revised […]