Safe Driving

Many UNISON members working in Energy will be familiar with various safe driving initiatives introduced by energy employers. This development will include not just broad awareness of the hazards of driving but also tracking devices which can monitor speed, braking distances, erratic driving etc. Although UNISON would support common sense approaches to ensure we all […]

Hydrogen Gas

Conference notes that UNISON is the largest staff union in the UK gas industry and has a proud heritage of supporting Gas members going back to local municipal gas corporations. Conference further notes that UNISON has members working right across the industrial spectrum from qualified engineers, scientists, finance, managerial, customer contact, emergency response, shipping terminals. […]

Energy Conference and Energy Branch Seminar

Conference notes the importance of the two main events in the Energy Service Group year – namely our Annual Conference and our Annual Branch Seminar. Both of these events are occasions of interaction and learning for our activists and also an occasion to recharge the batteries of our enthusiasm. However, it has been noticeable over […]

Oppose the TU Bill

This Energy conference believes that the Trade Union Bill represents the biggest assault on working people’s rights in living memory and represents an unashamed and deliberate attack on public sector trade unions in particular. The Bill affects almost every aspect of trade unionism in England, Wales and Scotland. It shifts the balance of power in […]

Energy Policy in the UK

This conference believes that the Government has failed to address significant issues relating to the future of energy supply in the UK. Despite repeated warnings by a range of stakeholders including UNISON, the Conservative Government’s inability to strategically plan for a low carbon energy supply future leaves the country in a perilous position going forward. […]

Developing Pension Capacity

Conference notes that defined benefit (DB) pension provision in the sector has been in decline. The closing of DB schemes and replacing them with defined contribution (DC) has in many cases been to the clear detriment of our members. Conference welcomes efforts already made to support pension developments within energy employers more actively and to […]

Fracking

Conference notes: Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as ‘Fracking’ is the process of drilling down into the earth before a high pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release gas inside. Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the gas to flow out at the head of […]

Mental health at work

Conference, Disabled members are concerned over how mental health is addressed in the work place, what is in place to help those with mental ill health while they are at work? Many of our members may already have a mental health condition or may have mental health conditions triggered by stress, stress can be from […]

Mental Ill- Health, Mental Health Related Illnesses and Awareness Monitoring.

The problems of mental ill-health and mental health related illnesses are some of the biggest difficulties facing our members at work today. When jobs are under threat, pay packets are being frozen and workloads are increasing, the mental health of employees is always likely to be affected. Over the last two decades, we have all […]

CAMPAIGNING AGAINST LOW & LOWER PAY.

UNISON remains committed to gender equality within all our pay structures and we commend the highly successful on-going campaign financed and delivered by our organisation to achieve this end. At the same time low pay and lower pay appears to have been largely ignored by UNISON as a priority of our members and most development […]

The impact of state pension changes on workers in the Energy sector

Conference notes that from 6 April 2016 the Basic State Pension and Second State Pension (S2P) will end and be combined/ replaced by a new State Pension. The majority of members in the energy service group are currently paying reduced rate NI Contributions because they are in a work place pension scheme that is better […]

Negotiating workplace domestic abuse policies

Conference notes that the majority of victims of the most severe forms of domestic abuse – and therefore those who are most affected – are women. In the energy service group women account for around 75% of the membership, and this is therefore an issue which has a significant impact on our members in the […]

Public Ownership of Energy Utilities

Conference believes 1)The changes within the Labour Party since the leadership election in 2015 indicate a welcome move towards UNISON’s long-held view that the Energy Industry should be brought back into public ownership. 2)There is now a golden opportunity to provide support and information to help consolidate this view within the labour movement. 3)The research […]

Raising the profile of LGBT workplace equality in energy

Conference welcomes the strong track record of our energy service group on equality issues. Amongst other successes, this has resulted in a diversity of activists on our national energy service group bodies, reflecting UNISON’s rules on fair representation and proportionality, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists. Conference acknowledges the importance of such role […]

Tackling Biphobia in the Energy Industry

Conference welcomes the progress we have made in putting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality on the bargaining agenda in the energy industry. However, conference notes that LGBT workers are a diverse group, who experience different types of discrimination in different ways. There is increasing understanding that issues facing transgender workers, while having many […]