This Conference congratulates UNISON’s hard work to create the Call Centre Charter, launched in 2012, which calls on all employers who have UNISON members working in a call centre or in call handling operations to commit to improving the standards which those staff operate under. However only one energy company has signed up to it […]
Conference motions
The National Retired Members’ Committee continues to work to ensure that the UNISON website serves as an efficient means of communicating with over 166,000 Retired members. It is vital that members are provided with information about campaigns that they can get involved with and the activities being undertaken by UNISON. Conference notes that since the […]
Conference opposes any attempts by Governments across the UK to cut universal benefits for older people such as the winter fuel payment, free bus pass, free prescriptions and free TV licences. These benefits are essential to ensuring a decent standard of living and social inclusion for millions of pensioners who face daily poverty, fuel poverty […]
Conference notes with concern the impact of a shift to a market centred model across Europe is resulting in an increasingly hostile debate around immigration. Parties such as the UK Independence Party (UKIP) on the immigration debate in the UK, are scapegoating some of the most vulnerable workers in the labour market for the economic […]
UNISON remains committed to and will continue to fight for public services delivered by workers directly employed on terms and conditions that have been collectively bargained by democratically accountable public bodies. Nevertheless, Conference recognises that more and more public service workers are employed by the private sector and the community and voluntary sector. Often working: […]
Conference is very concerned that the concessionary bus pass for pensioners is being attacked and no political party has stated that it will be retained after the 2015 election. Withdrawing the bus pass from pensioners will need another Act of Parliament (original Transport Act 2008) but that won’t stop this Government or any other one […]
Conference is very concerned that the Winter Fuel Allowance payments were included in the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne’s Budget statement on 19 March 2014, when he stated that benefits will be capped in 2015/16. The statistic (National Pensioners Convention) for the 2013/14 winter is that 31,000 pensioners died of cold-related diseases. The United […]
Conference notes that employers have increasingly been turning to zero hour contracts, as part of the general attack on staff terms and conditions that has accompanied the intensification of privatisation and cuts to funding across the public services. Zero hour contracts are where an individual is not guaranteed work and is paid only for the […]
Conference notes that the European Union (EU) and the United States have started negotiations on a new trade agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which could serve as a model for all future trade agreements. Conference further notes that the TTIP will not just remove trade tariffs but will also: harmonise regulatory standards; […]
CEDAW (19 19.1,20) In July 2013 the UK Government was called to give evidence to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). This requirement to give evidence happens every three years. Women’s organisations came together to produce a shadow report – that was given in evidence to CEDAW. The […]
In light of the recent United Nations evidence on the growing prevalence and impact of violence against women here and throughout the world, Council expresses extreme regret that UNISON NDC Conference 2013 defeated an amendment calling for women to be assumed to be telling the truth when they report abuse. Conference calls on the National […]
Conference recalls the 2012 Women’s conference resolution “Our tradition is equality and human rights”, which expressed concern that the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council had adopted a Russian resolution linking human rights to ‘traditional values’. It recognised that Russia was attempting to block progress on women’s rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) […]
Conference notes that Bisexual Visibility Day has been marked on the 23rd September since 1999. Bisexual Visibility Day is a day in which the bisexual community, their friends and supporters recognise and celebrate bisexuality, but the day is not acknowledged by many. Quite often bisexual women face biphobia not only from heterosexuals, but from the […]
Lulled by the soft sell and the hidden persuader, the average woman is seldom aware of the deadly materials with which she is surrounding herself, indeed she may not realise she is using them at all. This is a quote by Rachel Carson in 1962 and this still applies today, some 50 years later. Women […]
This Conference is concerned at the growing number of zero hour contracts that are being forced onto a desperate workforce. Conference believes that a disproportionate number of women in public services are increasingly being subjected to these types of contracts. The Coalition Government and private sector claim that zero hour contracts offer both the employer […]