Rule G Branches

Add new rule G 8: “G 8 Equality Representatives 8.1One or more Equality representatives shall be elected annually for each work group or workplace by the members in that group or workplace in accordance with branch arrangements. 8.2 The election of each Equality representative shall be reported to the branch for ratification and issuing of […]

Rule G 4.1.1 Branch Officers

Rule G 4.1.1 Delete “Equality Officer(s)” and replace with “Equality Co- ordinator(s)”

Absence Monitoring and Measurement for Women

Conference notes with concern the increase in absence monitoring within local government. Conference believes that the management tools used have a detrimental and disproportionate affect on women employees, when employers may use such scoring systems in the process of selection for redundancy, or as an excuse for dismissal when seeking to cut staff numbers. Schemes […]

Rule C 5 Becoming a Member

Insert new rule C 5.2 and renumber accordingly: “Rule C 5.2 A member of a political party, whose constitution, aims or objectives expressly or impliedly promote racism, or whose objectives are contrary to the objectives of UNISON, specifically the equality provisions set out in Rules A.3 and/or B1.2 and/or B1.3 of the UNISON Rule Book, […]

Trade Union Rights

Conference notes that in 1980 at the time of the last Conservative Government there were 13 million union members in the UK and collective bargaining or Wages Councils orders covered 82% of the labour force. In 2010 trade union membership is about six million workers and collective bargaining covers 35% of the labour force. The […]

CAMPAIGN AGAINST CUTS

Conference notes with alarm the devastating scale of cuts in the Public Sector which has become clear as public bodies’ budgets are being finalised. Conference condemns any attempts to roll back women’s equality through attacks on funding of the women’s voluntary sector and public services which primarily affect women. Whilst national campaigns by their very […]

Impunity in the Philippines

The Philippines is becoming increasingly dangerous for trade unionists and labour activists. According to the International Trade Union Confederation’s Annual Survey of Trade Union rights violations, the Philippines is the most dangerous place in Asia to be a trade unionist. In 2008, 218 new cases of trade union and human rights violations involving almost 69,000 […]

NO MORE BPA

Conference notes that in November 2009, Breast Cancer UK launched a campaign calling on the government and devolved nations to take action to end the use of controversial chemical, Bisphenol-A (commonly abbreviated to BPA), in baby bottles. Already voluntarily withdrawn from shelves in Canada and the USA, polycarbonate baby bottles made with BPA are still […]

REVIEW OF ON CALL

The last part of the UK negotiations on Agenda For Change is the review of on-call payments. Since 2004 there has been a difficult situation of protected local and Whitley agreements sitting alongside the Agenda For Change Scheme which provide for a wide range of differing payments. Discontent around this issue among many frontline staff […]

CAMPAIGN FOR HEALTH CARE ASSISTANTS

The National Nursing Sector recognises the unique and valuable contribution which healthcare assistants and all of their differing job titles, make to patient care. You are an essential part of the nursing team. However it has been clear for some time that a small number of organisations are expecting more and more commitment from Health […]

RE-TENDERING CONTRACTS BASED ON BEST VALUE

Would ask the SGE to re-affirm it’s commitment in opposing the so – called re-tendering of contracts dressed up as best practises as it is divisive, it impacts on a range of issues. 1)Staff being transferred or TUPE’d, which opens up an array of problems. Like work bases and conditions of service. 2)If the bid […]

REDEPLOYMENT AND ILL HEALTH RETIREMENT

Conference notes the changes to the NHS pension scheme and ill Health Retirement arrangements that have been in place since April 2008. Conference also notes there have been no extra groups of special classes for many years in the scheme, the last being Mental Health Officer status even though front line ambulance staff have campaigned […]

DISABLED WORKERS AND DISCRIMINATION IN REDUNDANCY PROCEDURES

This Conference is concerned that government’s solution to the current recession is through cutting funding to health services is having a negative disproportionate impact on disabled employees. The evidence from the Disabled Members Self Organised Group is that disabled health staff are more vulnerable with regards to redundancy and employers are using false competency measures […]

SKILL MIX

Conference notes the importance of skill mix throughout the NHS workforce and by developing good workforce planning in Nursing and Allied Health Professional Services which delivers better, flexible patient care. However, replacing Bands 5, 6 and 7 Nursing and Allied Health Professional staff with Band 3-5 Clinical Support Worker, to reduce costs will only put […]

END PFI NOW

Conference notes that by the financial year 2013/14 the total amount of money to be repaid by NHS Trusts to PFI consortia will be £2.3 billion a year, with a total debt of £90 billion over the duration of the schemes. This increased pressure on valuable NHS resources will come at a time when the […]