This conference believes that we need to stop the regressive practice of some organisations in the Community and Voluntary sector charging their new employees to get their Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) done. In the midst of a cost of living crisis which is impacting the working of people the hardest, this conference motion contends […]
Conference motions
Conference notes with grave concern the on-going staffing crisis across the social care sector. With social care organisations haemorrhaging staff and 165,000 vacancies remaining unfilled (skills for care Oct 2022), the companies providing these essential services are on their knees, and those on the front line are feeling it the most. Looking at the current […]
Conference, it cannot be right, that employees within social care with increasing rent/mortgage payments, fuel, food and utilities, can be left when they fall ill on £100 a week. This is totally unacceptable. Everyone in this room will know someone working in the social care sector, that has fallen ill and has reached crisis point […]
Conference notes that more than 82,000 UNISON members work in the community and voluntary sector. Many of them are women and a significant number work in social care, where women outnumber men four to one. Generally, women tend to have lower paid jobs and fewer hours than men. Also, there are three times as many […]
Conference last year resolved to campaign on sick pay, noting that many workers in our sectors receive only statutory sick pay. That means they receive hopelessly inadequate pay when sick, and nothing at all for the first three days of any sickness absence. Workers are forced to choose between going into work sick and feeding […]
Conference notes that it is a UNISON Rule Book commitment to establish Regional Community Service Group Committees under Rule D3.6. The criteria for representation being: Branches with 100+ Community members are entitled to nominate 2 delegates to the committee (at least one of whom must be female). Branches with 50-100 Community members are entitled to […]
Conference notes the introduction into Parliament of Employment and Trade Union Rights (Dismissal and Re-engagement) Bill by Barry Gardiner MP and backed by the Institute of Employment Rights which sought to amend the law relating to workplace information and consultation, employment protection and trade union rights in order to provide safeguards for workers against dismissal […]
Conference notes the publication of the Law Family Commission on Civil Society study, carried out by Pro Bono Economics in August 2022 entitled “The price of purpose? Pay gaps in the charity sector” which identifies that charity staff in the UK are paid 7% less per hour on average than workers in other sectors and […]
Conference notes the October 2022 data produced by Skills for Care on social care workers shows at least 165,000 vacancies across adult social care providers at the end of 2021-22. This report identifies that staff vacancies in social care in England increased by a record 52% during that year, with 1 in 10 posts vacant […]
Conference notes that UNISON membership is in decline and the current average age of a UNISON rep is over 50; In many Community workplaces, young workers are less likely to join a trade union, and those who do join are less likely to develop as an active member; An increasing number of young people are […]
Conference notes the publication of the “The All Work and Low Pay” report produced by the Living Wage Foundation in Summer 2022 which identified that one in seven charity workers are paid below the real living wage, a lower rate than across the economy as a whole, despite a higher proportion of charity sector workers […]
Universities are autonomous organisations, delivering higher education and research, with the freedom to manage their own finances, subject to regulation. Each institution is different, with a complex mix of income streams depending on the nature of the students it teaches, the quantity and perceived quality of research it conducts to drive research income, and the […]
Higher education pay has fallen behind. Since 2009 our pay has lost around 28% of its value as a result of below inflation cost-of-living rises year on year. The extreme increase in prices during 2022 has brought this to a crisis point, and UNISON members working in Higher Education are facing real hardship as a […]
Conference believes that everyone deserves to be paid a real living wage. We call upon the National Higher Education Service Group Executive to ensure that in the next round of The New Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (JNCHES) negotiations a pay spine is proposed and promoted by UNISON representatives in which the lowest […]
Conference believes it is time that Universities actively participated in 4-day work week trials. Universities are centres of research and innovation and many want to be ‘employers of choice’ (employers that people actively want to work for). They are the perfect institutions to try new approaches to work. Findings suggest that a 4-day week enhances […]