Conference notes with concern that many employers have introduced draconian measures to reduce rates of sickness absence. These measures often seek to diminish the status of GP’s certificates in favour of assessments by company appointed private Occupational Health practitioners. They also attempt to marginalise existing collective agreements of sickness absence and often make no distinction […]
Conference motions
Conference notes the importance of our union’s conferences, both in their democratic policy making role and also for the way they inform and inspire activists to return, re-energised, to their local union work. Conference notes with regret that only a minority of Energy branches send delegates to the annual UNISON lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender […]
This Conference believes that if we are to tackle climate change we have to negotiate changes to the way we work. Over two thirds of UK carbon dioxide emissions are work related. Colleges teach and train over three million people every year. In doing so they use significant amounts of energy and other resources and […]
Conference notes that in the current political structures there are a variety of combinations of political parties forming administrations at local/council level, devolved parliamentary level and at the employers organisations. Whilst there are still some single party administrations (Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat) there are many more coalitions, alliances, no-over-all-controls, etc. In the Scottish Parliament there […]
This Conference endorses the “Time to Pay Up” Campaign for our members in Further Education by focusing on the minority of colleges that refuse to implement nationally agreed pay deals, resulting in up to 50% of colleges not being on any comparable, nationally agreed pay scale. This causes confusion throughout the sector when comparing jobs […]
Conference believes that the Further Education (FE) sector has a vital role to play in helping to retrain and re skill people who will sadly lose their jobs as a result of the recession. Conference therefore welcomes the additional money being allocated to the FE sector in England to fund learning and skills development in […]
This conference is concerned about the impact of the economic downturn on local government workers jobs. The consequences for disabled workers is huge; constant reorganisation, threats of privatisation, long hours and too few staff are factors that build even greater barriers to employment and career opportunities. Local government employers are using the economic situation as […]
This Conference agrees t support their colleagues in Children’s Services with regard to the unacceptance working conditions those workers are enduring at present. These conditions include: 1)Unacceptably heavy case loads 2)Pressure not to practice professionally and in the prime interests of children, with assessment of need being secondary to what financial resources are available. 3)Cases […]
Conference calls upon our Pension Representatives and negotiators to defend the existing rights of all UNISON members. We call upon UNISON to stop the recommendations proposed by the Local Government Pension Scheme Cost Sharing Proposals. These proposals to be in place by 31 March 2009 and include cost sharing by both parties, employer and employees, […]
Over the past few months increasing numbers of councils have been facing financial problems, sadly resulting in some of our members losing their jobs. If, as a union, we are going to better challenge councils when they say they have financial problems branches need to have a better understanding of how local government is funded, […]
Conference notes that local government employees are uniquely and increasingly ‘squeezed’ between the priorities of central and local government, the complex funding mechanism for local government and efficiency savings. Conference believes that the public is entitled to the highest quality services and efficient use of public money. However, there is a limit to the ‘efficiencies’ […]
Conference notes the continuing and pervasive nature of racism experienced by Black members in local government workplaces across Britain. Conference further notes the abundant evidence that has been generated as a result of monitoring under the Race Relations Amendment Act (2000) to show that Black people continue to be under-represented in the workplace, and that […]
Conference notes the Local Government Equality Framework (LGEF) replaced the Equality Standard in April 2009. It aims to enable local authorities to meet the public sector equality duties set out in the new Single Equalities Bill – which merges all the complex and single Equality Acts into one new Bill. In October 2008 the Local […]
Conference notes that while the financial situation has tightened considerably in all local government funded services, it is often the community and voluntary sector which is hit hardest by funding constraints. Local authorities often turn to voluntary sector partners first when cuts need to be made, and the result is that voluntary organisations have to […]
Conference notes growing evidence of serious shortcomings in the implementation of ‘personalisation’ in social care. The primary focus of central governments and local authorities is the roll out of ‘cash for care’ schemes such as direct payments, personal budgets or individual budgets. Other aspects of personalisation such as early intervention and prevention of dependency have […]