Conference is delighted that changes to legislation in April 2005 will impose a new disability equality duty on public bodies and some private companies. We believe these new duties could reconstruct a barrier-free society and provide equality of opportunity for the millions of disabled people who are in work, want to work, and those who […]
Conference motions
Conference is outraged that teaching establishments across the United Kingdom are threatening the recognition of British Sign Language (BSL) and the future of deaf people. We call upon the National Disabled Members’ Committee to work with the National Executive Council to continue to campaign for BSL to be recognised in reality by: 1)challenging proposals to […]
Conference recognises the right of every member to take part in the union’s campaigning activities, including attendance at marches and rallies. It is therefore important that, as with all other areas of the union’s work, steps are taken to ensure such events are fully accessible to disabled members. We therefore call upon the National Disabled […]
Amendment to Motion 30 (Carried and incorporated into M 30) Add after fifth paragraph “That a member who is accused of a serious sexual allegation of a service user or member of staff can lead to the arrest or even charge of the member. The result of a false allegation can lead to the arrest […]
Conference will be aware that community health councils have been replaced with various types of patients forums designed to give people a say in the way in which their local hospital provides services. But too often the voice of older people is not heard and their views and needs not taken into account adequately. Therefore […]
Following the election of a Labour government for a third term, Conference requests that the National Retired Members’ Committee work with UNISON Labour Link as appropriate to promote the following objectives: 1)restoration of the link between pensions and earnings; 2)personal care to be included in long term care of the elderly; 3)free concessionary travel for […]
UNISON retired members have long recognised the need for affordable and efficient public transport for older people. Conference welcomes the launch of UNISON’s charter for public transport. It stresses the need to re-regulate services to produce improvements and highlights the failure of privatisation with bus fares rising faster than inflation and faster than motoring costs. […]
Conference notes the increases in charges to attend classes for Lifelong Learning being proposed by the government. This will affect people on low pay and fixed incomes, especially pensioners. Any reduction in class attendance will result in class closures to the detriment of the students who attend for both academic, cultural and social stimulus. There […]
Conference notes with regret that some councils/social services are to stop daily deliveries of meals on wheels to senior citizens and vulnerable members of our communities. The service is to be replaced by a weekly delivery of frozen food packs. It is also proposed that anyone who does not have a microwave oven or freezer […]
Conference deplores the fact that almost 30 years after the Equal Pay Act there continues to be a gap between full-time men and part-time women’s pay in local government of 42% and an overall gender pay gap of 19%. 80% of councils across the UK still need to implement new pay structures and deliver equal […]
Conference notes with alarm plans announced by the Government and devolved UK administrations to achieve so-called “efficiency savings” in the public sector by increasing productivity and procurement. Conference affirms its commitment to high quality, responsive public services, but believes that the efficiency reviews are cost driven and not likely to improve services. Each efficiency announcement […]
Conference notes that the Government’s emphasis on high quality, improved local government services continues but believes that this cannot be achieved without a highly skilled and fairly rewarded workforce. However this contrasts with a continuing skills deficit in Local Government, in areas such as environmental protection, social services and trading standards and the additional pressures […]
Conference asks the National Executive Council to fight for the following changes to the National Health Service to ensure the comfort and care of elderly and disabled patients: An extra dedicated member of staff will be made available to all elderly and disabled patients when they are admitted to hospital. This member of staff will […]
Conference is concerned that South East Region has unfortunately discovered that disability and equality awareness is not consistent within all UNISON regional education and training courses. Conference instructs National Disabled Members’ Committee to liaise with the regional education committees to ensure that appropriate disability awareness training is included on all UNISON education and training programmes […]
Conference restates our complete opposition to any detrimental changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme which would reduce our members’ security when facing retirement, redundancy or ill-health. The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is not a costly and unaffordable scheme – it provides a modest income in old age for workers who have served the […]