Trade Union Facilities

Conference notes motion 16 passed at NDC conference 2016 instructed the NEC to: “Work with Labour Link to campaign to defend facility time, briefing individual elected politicians at all levels, developing model motions for councils – making it clear that attacked on facility time are particularly unacceptable from Labour councils – and pushing for debates […]

Women and sickness absence

Conference notes that increasingly local government employers are penalising employees taking sick leave, and that women are disproportionately affected by the sickness absence schemes in use in local government that treat regular short periods of absence particularly severely. There are many women-specific conditions that fall foul of those penalties, including endometriosis, menorrhagia, menopause, PMS- related […]

Henry VIII’s Cruellest Cut

We voted to leave the EU. Control over our laws, it was argued, would be returned to our Houses of Parliament and all our laws would be debated by our democratically elected Members of Parliament, with our democratic rights strengthened, not weakened. The proposed Great Repeal Bill, which will repeal The European Communities Act 1972, […]

Local Government Apprentices

Conference acknowledges there will be considerable growth in the number of apprentices employed in local government as a result of the apprenticeship levy, as well as the provisions of the Enterprise Act around apprenticeship targets for public sector bodies. Conference recognises the good practice that exists in some local government branches, who not only recruit […]

Mental health and workloads in the council workfor

The Westminster government’s slash and burn response to the economic crisis, and their austerity measures have resulted in drastic financial cuts to local government. Council employers are being forced to make radical cost savings. It is no surprise that the first attacks being made are to staffing levels, and terms and conditions of employment. The […]

Intergenerational Commission

This conference rejects the proposals contained in the Resolution Foundation think tank’s report of the intergenerational Commission, chaired by Lord David Willetts (nicknamed Two Brains), titled “A New Generational Contract”. Conference further rejects the myth of generational unfairness on which the report is founded, and which masks the fact that the real unfairness is based […]

Raising the Profile of Local Government Workers

Conference notes that local government services too often suffer from a low profile, with little political or media understanding or support for the work local government employees do. There is not enough recognition for the work our members in local authorities and schools do. Often, members providing services in local government are not recognised for […]

“Say No” to National Assessment and Accreditation

The Conservative government is planning to introduce an accreditation system for children and family social workers which will undoubtedly put already stretched social workers under even more pressure to meet rising demands on services that protect Children and Young People (CYP). Conference notes: • Children’s services are in financial crisis. According to report in Guardian […]

WINDRUSH

Conference is appalled at the Windrush scandal and the treatment of too many of the British citizens affected. In particular Conference is concerned for the many retired people and pensioners caught up in this controversy whose status and rights as British citizens have been erroneously called into question. Conference recalls that Caribbean people were invited […]

Housing

Conference notes that cuts to investment in social rented homes and instead promoting of home-ownership options such as shared ownership, starter homes and Help to Buy. This has led to a year on year drastic decline in the social housing sector since 1979. Housing policies have led to a 97% drop in the number of […]

Privatisation and bringing services back

Conference notes that privatisation and outsourcing is increasingly discredited. Up and down the country, councils of different political persuasions are bringing services back in-house, to save money and to end the in-built inflexibility of private contracts where the slightest change involves extra cost. An example of this inflexibility is the waste disposal contract in the […]

Career progression of Black workers

This conference believes that the level of career progression of Black workers is very low in most work places and is imperative that this is addressed. The Equality Act 2010 states that we should have equal opportunities for all. Conference believes that all Black workers should be supported, enabled and valued to progress into senior […]

Bullying of Black workers in the workplace

This Conference notes historical evidence from the TUC has shown that Black workers are reluctant to use the employer’s policies that are put in place to protect them and fear the ramifications as a result of reporting instances of bullying and discrimination. In a UNISON survey from 2009, the evidence revealed that Black women employees […]

Black pupils exclusion from schools.

Conference recognises that Black Caribbean pupils are significantly more likely to be permanently excluded from schools three times more likely than white pupils. Black pupils are routinely punished more harshly, praised less, told off more often and more likely than white pupils to be identified as having behaviour related to educational needs. Black pupils are […]

We Need Pay Ratios in Higher Education (HE)

Conference notes: 1)By the end of 2017, members in Higher Education will have lost the equivalent of one fifth of their pay since 2009/10. 2)At the same time, Senior Managers have seen their salaries consistently increase above the rate of inflation, with twenty-three Vice Chancellors taking an increase of 10% or more last year. Conference […]