INFLUENCING THE NEW NHS STRUCTURES

Conference notes we continue to see the true extent of the Health and Social Care Bill and the Tory Government’s plans for the NHS. We are seeing the widespread privatisation and fragmentation of our NHS. Our members losing their jobs, forced into the private sector where profits are put before patient care. The recent threat […]

Pay Campaign

Conference notes that according to Oxfam (March 2014), the five richest families in the UK are wealthier than the bottom 20 per cent of the entire population – five households with more money than 12.6 million people – almost the same as the number of people living below the poverty line in the UK. The […]

Defend Healthcare Student Bursaries

Conference welcomes the decision at the 2015 Health Service Group Conference to call on the Health Service Group Executive to campaign for all nursing and other ‘non-medical’ pre-registration healthcare students to be paid a salary no less than the Living Wage. Conference condemns the announcement in George Osborne’s November 2015, Autumn statement, to end the […]

Student Nurses Funding

This Conference condemns the decision by the UK Tory Government to require fees for nursing and midwifery courses to be paid for from 2017 by loans rather than the current bursary system. This callous decision will drive more and more of those people who want to care for the vulnerable in our society into poverty […]

NHS Pay Determination and Devolution

Conference welcomes the decision taken by UNISON Health Conference in 2015 which acknowledged that responsibility for determining NHS pay is a devolved function. Devolution however does not mean that UNISON is anything other than wholly committed to improving pay in the NHS across all of the four countries in the UK. It is unacceptable in […]

Agenda for Change – Tackling Low Pay

This Conference welcomes the decision taken by UNISON National Delegate Conference in 2015 to “push toward minimum pay rates of £10 per hour.” This Conference also welcomes the decision taken by UNISON Health Conference in 2015 to call upon the Health Service Group Executive to develop a campaign to eliminate Band One from Agenda for […]

Domestic Abuse: Training for Pre-Hospital Healthcare Professionals.

Conference recognises that domestic abuse, whether inflicted by men on women, by women on men or by same sex couples must not be defended or tolerated in today’s modern society. However the abuse is caused or who causes it, when injury or ill health results and the victim is in need of medical attention, it […]

Health and Safety Expertise within Health Branches

Conference regards the health, safety and welfare of workers as paramount across the NHS. Conference believes the successful pursuit of health and safety legislation, regulations and practice in the workplace rests in large part on the efforts of unionised work places. Conference recognises the attempts of government to roll back health and safety provision. Conference […]

Age Discrimination in Higher Education

With rising pension ages both in the State and Employers Pension Scheme, Higher Education will see an increase in the age of its workforce. The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to discriminate against employees because of their age. Age discrimination can impact on someone’s confidence, job prospects, financial situation and quality of life. Older […]

Information Is Power

This Conference believes that the growth of privatisation and outsourcing in Higher Education presents a major challenge not just to the provision of services, but also to our ability to organise the workforce effectively. This Conference believes that the service group’s response to this challenge must be to support branches seeking to resist privatisation and […]

Control of Risk and Hazardous Substances in Higher Education

Conference notes that Health and Safety has not been exempt from the government’s austerity cuts agenda. The continued drive to “cut red tape” has brought changes to both the way work environments and hazardous substances are classified. Conference welcomes the initiative to standardise substance labelling worldwide and agree that when it comes to health and […]

Equality rights and collective agreements in higher education

Conference notes that it was our union’s national collective bargaining that established many equality protections long before they were enshrined in law. For example, our predecessor unions secured recognition of same sex partners for the purposes of workplace benefits before workplace discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation was banned and many years before the first […]

University wholly owned subsidiary companies

Conference, higher education employers are increasingly using the creation of wholly owned subsidiary companies to transfer support staff to deliver services. This is being used as a way to externalise staff for the purpose of creating a two-tier workforce to undermine the terms and conditions of new workers and placing the pensions and other contractual […]

“Impact of Trade Union Bill on Higher Education”

Conference notes that the Trade Union Bill currently going through Parliament is the biggest attack on workers’ rights and civil liberties in a generation. The headline requirement of a 50% turnout for a strike ballot is well known but there are other more insidious and pernicious sections that will fundamentally affect the way that Trade […]

Defending Trade Union Rights in Higher Education

This conference notes: 1)The current political climate makes trade union activists more vulnerable to victimisation. 2)The Trade Union Bill being presented to parliament in autumn 2015 represents a significant attack on trade union rights. 3)That there is no longer a legal right for employees to be accompanied by a trade union representative at flexible working […]