Agenda for Change – Tackling Low Pay

This Conference welcomes the decision taken by UNISON National Delegate Conference in 2015 to “push toward minimum pay rates of £10 per hour.” This Conference also welcomes the decision taken by UNISON Health Conference in 2015 to call upon the Health Service Group Executive to develop a campaign to eliminate Band One from Agenda for […]

Domestic Abuse: Training for Pre-Hospital Healthcare Professionals.

Conference recognises that domestic abuse, whether inflicted by men on women, by women on men or by same sex couples must not be defended or tolerated in today’s modern society. However the abuse is caused or who causes it, when injury or ill health results and the victim is in need of medical attention, it […]

Health and Safety Expertise within Health Branches

Conference regards the health, safety and welfare of workers as paramount across the NHS. Conference believes the successful pursuit of health and safety legislation, regulations and practice in the workplace rests in large part on the efforts of unionised work places. Conference recognises the attempts of government to roll back health and safety provision. Conference […]

Ethical Procurement Policy in Housing associations and Charities

Conference welcomes the news that the Living wage has been increased to £9.40 per hour in London and £8.25 elsewhere. It is right and proper that UNISON is fully behind moves to encourage even more employers to sign up to the living wage. It is not acceptable that many of our members work 35 hours […]

Attacks on Third Sector Terms and Conditions

Following the Chancellor’s budget speech on 8th July 2015 and the introduction of the “National Living Wage” we call on conference to lobby, support and campaign to prevent attacks on terms and conditions of the members working in The Third Sector. The Third Sector is now further under attack from the employers due to the […]

Living Wage

Conference notes and applauds the role UNISON has played, and continues to play, in the campaign for a Living Wage. Around 4.8 million people, 20% of the working population, are paid less than a Living Wage – the hourly rate set by the Living Wage Foundation calculated according to the actual cost of living, and […]

Facility time in the community sector

Conference notes within the community sector it is can be difficult to negotiate paid time off for trade union workplace representatives to carry out trade union duties, particularly in smaller workplaces. Workplace reps are entitled to paid time off to cover trade union duties related to collective bargaining on issues including terms and conditions of […]

Count us in

Conference notes the challenges of organising lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) members in community, partly at least due to the way in which we are structured. Members may belong to a national branch, a bespoke community branch, a housing association branch, a health branch, a local government branch and/or a small branch. Where members […]

Black Community Sector and Commissioning

This Conference believes that a strong and empowered Black community sector benefits all communities. The Black community sector often provides innovative and inclusive projects and reaches people who would otherwise remain on the margins of society. It not only provides vital services but plays an important role in capacity building, civic engagement and social inclusion. […]

Sick Pay

This conference notes the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) findings that for the fifth year running, over 30% of employers have reported an increase in staff going into work whilst unwell. UNISON’s Community members’ survey found that 85% of members had gone into work ill in the last two years. This conference welcomes […]

Violence at work

This conference notes that there is widespread under reporting of violence in the workplace and believes that in many social care workplaces it is wrongly accepted as part of the job. Commissioners are cutting funding, and placing service users with high needs in homes designed for those with lower needs. This particularly affects services provided […]

Funding of Social Care in Community

The social care sector plays a vital role in Community. Not only are there over 320,000 workers employed in social care within the charity sector, but many more are employed by housing associations. Therefore the crisis in social care funding has a particularly far reaching and negative impact on members within Community. This substantial reduction […]

Violence at Work

This Conference notes the sterling work done by UNISON Scotland in: • surveying violence at work over a twelve year period • campaigning for Zero Tolerance of all workplace assaults; and, • securing the Emergency Workers (Scotland) act 2005 which gives key public sector workers added legal protection Conference notes that this detailed recording of […]

Fair treatment for workers in the community and voluntary sector

Conference notes with concern the growth of poor working practices in the community and voluntary sector. Increasingly the sector is providing support for those who the statutory agencies are unable to help, or where there is no government/local authority priority or duty to provide care. However, cuts in funding – both from government sources and […]

Low pay in the community sector

Conference notes with concern that cuts to local authority budgets are impacting on the salaries of our members in the community sector. This is particularly a problem in the care sector, where the majority of employees are low paid women. There is evidence that, in some cases, the terms offered by commissioners are so low […]