Conference notes that disabled workers are entitled to reasonable adjustments to break down the barriers they face at work. However too many Higher Education employers continue to ignore requests for adjustments or to refuse them. Conference notes that case law has established that the provision of a dedicated car parking space can be a reasonable […]
Conference motions
Conference Notes: Public services have been systematically underfunded for years and Higher Education is not exempt from austerity and cutbacks. Whilst different funding systems operate across the four UK nations, delivering funding based on grants, tuition fee loans or both, what unites many Higher Education Institutions is that money is scarce and high inflation has […]
Conference notes the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, which gives parents the right to take up to two weeks’ time off work to deal with the death of a child, if the child has died under the age of 18 or is stillborn after 24 weeks of pregnancy, as well as […]
Conference notes the continuing failure of the government to invest and maintain a wide variety of public services in the UK, with almost every institution showing signs of underinvestment in systems, infrastructure, and staffing. Most of the public services delivered by UNISON members are showing sign of this strain despite often heroic efforts to maintain […]
Higher Education pay has fallen behind. Since 2009 our pay has lost around 28% of its value as a result of successive below inflation cost-of-living rises, year on year. The extreme increase in prices during 2022 and 2023 has brought this to a crisis point, and UNISON members working in Higher Education are facing real […]
Every year, UCEA representing the employers in the HE sector pay negotiations, state that while some universities are wealthy, there are universities that would struggle, indeed may be forced into considering redundancies, the closure of departments and so on, should a significant pay settlement be forced upon them. For this reason, staff salaries have been […]
Conference notes and welcomes the new protection from redundancy for pregnant workers and new parents. Conference thanks Dan Jarvis MP for working in support with UNISON on the new law – the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill – to prevent employers from laying off expectant mothers and new parents, by extending redundancy […]
Conference, it’s a well-known fact that our union is made up of 80% women and that there are 5.5 million unionised workers in the UK. Women make up half the UK workforce. So why are women still so underrepresented in our union structures and in our union visibility? UNISON collectively gives voice to working people […]
Conference following the success of UNISON’s Year of Black Workers 2023 (YOBW23), the NBMC wish to place on record our thanks to all of our activists who have driven this success throughout our union. Throughout the year we saw a renewed and focussed approach to challenging racism in the workplace and the experiences of Black […]
The National Health Service (NHS) reported that 3.25 million individuals had contact with mental health services during 2021/22 which is approximately 5.8 percent of the population. The Mental Health Foundation tells us that 50% of mental health problems are established by age 14 and 75% by age 24, yet many young people have not had […]
> The intersection of sexism and racism mean that often women of colour experience compounded disadvantage. A new report from the Fawcett Society supported by the #EthnicityPayGap Campaign, shows how the ‘Motherhood Pay Penalty’ means that mothers with two children take home 26% less income than women without children which impacts across the earning power […]