Workplace stress / resilience

Work-related stress affects far too many of our members. Work-related stress is now a major issue for our union as members have to deal with workload problems day in and day out. A high level of workplace stress is stressful to our bodies, our mental health and can lead to serious ill health and absenteeism […]

Workload / Training budgets / staff development / invest in University staff

Workload issues in the sector are becoming all too commonplace. For many UNISON members working in the Higher Education sector means facing up to an unrealistic and ever increasing workload as this has now become the norm. An excessive workload has devastating impact on staff morale, health and wellbeing. For many it will lead to […]

BrHExit

Conference notes that existing UNISON policy states that Exiting of the European Union (EU) must not allow racists and xenophobes to use borders to divide workers. The ‘right to remain’ for EU workers and freedom of movement must be defended. Workers united in solidarity together are stronger in defending and promoting our interests across Europe. […]

Marketisation of Higher Education (HE)

Recent Government policy for HE in England has been dominated by the pursuit of competition, markets and privatisation. This will be compounded by measures in the Higher Education and Research Bill which introduces further competition into the sector and escalates the cost of attending university. Higher education is a public service providing benefits to the […]

Responsible buying in higher education institutions

Conference recognises that precarious work is becoming a growing occurrence across the world as some governments seek to develop their economies at the expense of their workforces. Precarious work include workers being forced to work extremely long hours for very little or no pay, sometimes in very hazardous conditions including unsafe buildings; the growing use […]

Senior Management Pay

Higher Education workers have undergone many years of pay restraint despite our many years of resisting and now our UK wide campaign to ‘Break the Cap’ this is not something our colleagues who are classed as senior management have had to endure. Conference notes that the average pay of University Vice Chancellors is now £278k […]

Fair Pay for the many not the few

Conference notes that members in the Higher Education (HE) sector continue to struggle to make ends meet. There has been a significant change in public opinion on austerity and pay restraint evidenced in the outcome of the general election. Inflation rates have risen sharply over the past 12 months and now stands at 3.7% Retail […]

Women and Automation

Women and Automation Conference notes that automation and digitisation of jobs is changing the nature, quality, and distribution of employment, not just within sectors such as manufacturing and distribution, but in the sphere of public services too. This means that there is a mistaken view that Automation affects jobs that are predominantly done by men. […]

Stop Porn Culture

The pornography industry has pushed its way into our lives, distorting our conceptions of sex and sexuality. Pornography offers people a vision of sexuality rooted in men’s domination of women and women’s acceptance of their own degradation. Pornography is not simply the sexist, naked Playboy photos from earlier times. Those pin-up-type centrefolds look tame when […]

Low Pay and Women in UNISON

UNISON’s principles of proportionality and fair representation means that some seats on elected bodies, including the NEC, are reserved for women and low-paid members, so that the make-up fairly represents the wider union. We have a variety of places where low paid seats exist, and low pay is included in branch delegations to national delegate […]

Femicide – not an isolated incident

The killing of a woman, especially in a domestic setting, is often reported as an ‘isolated incident with no further threat to the public’. Such descriptions dismiss the scale of the issue, and diminish the fact that gender-based violence is a society-wide issue. This conference applauds the work of Karen Ingala-Smith (Chief Executive of Nia […]