Forced Marriages

This Conference notes: Domestic Abuse takes many forms. However, the issue of Forced Marriage and Honour Based Violence places women, children and vulnerable adults at risk of rape, physical and mental harm and can end in murder. There is a huge difference between Arranged Marriages and Forced Marriages and we must be able to ensure […]

Women – The under employed, under valued gender

Conference notes the disproportionate negative impact the Tory led cuts are having on our women members. This Tory led government feels that any job is better than no job but the simple fact is any job working any hours sometimes doesn’t pay the bills! More women are suffering cuts to their contractual hours or are […]

Challenging Indirect Discrimination

This conference notes The current Tory led coalition’s cuts to the public sector have had a significant impact on women working in the public sector. The cuts Impact on the ability of women to remain in employment and those that do come under enormous pressure to over perform. Government ministers have openly said that if […]

Women Menopause and Work

Conference believes that under the pressure of the austerity policies adopted by management of both public and private sector organisations, women workers are being victimised by the unsympathetic enforcement of sickness absence procedures for short term absence. Women experiencing menstrual and menopausal symptoms continue to feel the pressure and prejudice of having ‘women’s problems’ which […]

THREATS TO FACILITY TIME AND ITS IMPACT ON UNISON WOMEN ACTIVISTS

Conference will be aware that at the Tory Party Conference in October 2012, the announcements were made to extend attacks on facility time in the public sector. Britain has a tradition of progressing industrial relations through a joint approach with the trade unions. Public sector employers recognise the worth in having facility time as a […]

Valuing Maternity

Conference is concerned to note that in this time of austerity measures maternity, adoption, surrogacy and parental provisions are often being targeted by employers seeking to make savings in their budgets, particularly for those members working in the community and voluntary sector. Pregnancy discrimination already affects tens of thousands of women each year, with pregnant […]

Protecting women’s mental health

Conference notes that the issue of work-related stress has been of major concern to our union for many years. UNISON branches have been successful in negotiating workplace policies on stress and mental wellbeing and supporting members to remain in work, and UNISON has won compensation for members forced out of the workplace by unsympathetic employers. […]

Ending violence against women, an international perspective

Conference applauds the excellent work which UNISON at branch, regional and national level does in campaigning to end violence against women in all its forms. However, conference also notes that UNISON has a role to play in raising awareness of the atrocities which are committed against women across the globe. Rape and sexual violence continue […]

Universal credit, universal harm

Conference is deeply concerned at the potentially damaging effect that the government’s welfare reform and universal credit will have on women, their families and their lives. Already the changes to working tax credit, requiring at least one person in the household to work more than 24 hours per week, have meant that hundreds of thousands […]

Pensions – what we need to know

Conference notes that huge changes to occupational pensions are taking place, with the introduction of pensions auto enrolment. 1) All employees paying income tax and aged between 22 and State Pension Age are affected. 2) From the 1 October 2012 the very largest employers were required to ensure that eligible staff were automatically enrolled into […]