• Election of Branch Officers See below
  (click here to see what the positions are and what they do)
• Rule Changes and Motions passed
  • Rule Change 1
  • Comp 1 facing the challenges of 2010
  • 2. Professional Representation and Fitness To Practice
  • 3. Domestic Abuse/Violence - Workplace Agreements
  • 4. See Me Campaign
  • 5. Subscriptions Bands
  • 6 Self Organisation
  • 7. Response to economic and environmental crises - Putting People First
    
• 2010 Agenda and 2009 Annual Report
• Supplementary Agenda (pdf)
• Health & Safety Work Plan (pdf)

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2. Professional Representation and Fitness To Practice

This Branch notes that increasing numbers of our members require to be registered with bodies like the Scottish Social Services Council, Health Professionals Council etc. and will soon require to be registered under ‘Check to Protect’.

This Branch recognises that registration bodies have a duty to protect the public and have codes governing professional conduct, standards of competency and health requirements. However, this Branch also recognises that increasing registration brings a new dimension to representing members. Removal from registration means the loss of livelihood and is an employment issue. Even interim removal, with no case yet proven against a member, can result in the member being unable to work.

This Branch notes that UNISON has responded by developing a Professional Services Unit, protocols and guidance, but it believes that new skills and organisation are needed in Regions and Branches to manage the workload and ensure that members receive the best representation possible.

This Branch Meeting therefore instructs Branch Officers to present a motion to National Delegate Conference 2010 to develop:-

1. Organisational strategies
2. Training and support for activists
3. Early access to specialist advice

as follows....

Professional Representation and Fitness To Practice Conference notes that an increasing number of our members across services have to be registered with bodies like the General Social Care Council, the Scottish Social Services Council, Care Councils in Wales and Northern Ireland, Health Professionals' Council etc.

It further notes that registration requirements will increase and widen with the new Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) and its Vetting & Barring Scheme, to be phased in from July 2010, and, in Scotland, the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Scheme, "Check to Protect" which also comes into force this year.

Conference recognises that registration bodies have a duty to protect the public and have codes governing professional conduct, standards of competency and health requirements. We believe this can only be truly effective when combined with advancing public education, dedicated training and, vitally, adequate resources and funding to ensure staffing levels, ongoing development and systems are in place to support our members in their work in public, private or voluntary bodies.

Conference believes that increasing registration brings a new dimension to representing members. Removal from registration means the loss of livelihood and is therefore an employment issue and a trade union issue.

Members can face employer investigations and a registration body investigation/sanction at the same time. Irrespective of the result of any internal action, a member can still lose their livelihood by being removed from a register. Even interim removal with no case yet proven, or 'listing' pending an appeal, can result in the member being unable to work. Conference also remains concerned about the lack of a fair hearing at the point of 'barring' in the new schemes.

Conference notes the development of UNISON's Professional Services Unit (PSU), which lobbies on behalf of our professional/registered members, responding to consultations, developing training programmes with partner bodies to promote standards and representing members in some "fitness to practice" cases.

The PSU has also issued guidance sheets for Branches and members which are available on the website, including protocols for advice and representation on Fitness To Practice.

Members need to be confident appropriate, and if needed, specialist support is available and UNISON rightly prides itself on the service we provide through our lay activists and staff. Fitness To Practice cases are particularly legalistic, nearly always held in public (except employees' health related cases) and can be a daunting and stressful experience.

Conference therefore believes a strategy is needed that builds on the good work already done and ensures that the right skills, systems and organisation are in place at Head Office, Regional and Branch level to manage the inevitably increasing workload and ensure that members receive the best representation possible. This should include:-

1. Keeping existing protocols under review including the responsibilities of Branches and/or Regions for direct representation at interim hearings, to allow a flexible and expedient response where these are held outside of a member's Region.

2. Regions holding training and awareness briefings on handling cases, familiarisation with the procedures and support resources available, and to increase the capacity base of advocacy skills for hearings.

3. Branches to publicise the issues with members, including the importance of making early contact when they have received a letter from their registration body, or where they anticipate that a referral/complaint may be made by their employer or another party (even if a local investigation has yet to commence).

4. Branches to cascade awareness of FTP case handling to all accredited stewards.

5. Developing Regional protocols on FTP cases, including the possibility of an 'early warning flag' to the Region where Branches believe a local investigation could involve a referral to a registration body - to enable preliminary document bundles to be assembled, advice to be issued, contact to be made with the PSU at Head Office if appropriate, and resources allocated as necessary.

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3. Domestic Abuse/Violence - Workplace Agreements

As amended

Conference recognises that Domestic Abuse/Violence is a complex issue that will often need complex solutions. Conference also recognises that Domestic Abuse/Violence is a workplace issue that requires effective and progressive workplace policies and procedures if it is to be recognised by employers as a real workplace issue.

Domestic Abuse/Violence is a workplace issue that affects all genders either as victims or perpetrators and its affects can be far reaching. Home and work issues cannot always be easily separated and domestic abuse/violence can have a huge impact on job performance, which often results in disciplinary action, can threaten job prospects, career development and security. Conference recognises that we must be committed to supporting members who are affected by domestic abuse/violence and the most effective way of doing this, is by negotiating a workplace agreement.

Conference notes that the most up to date Home Office Statistics show that 14% of all violent incidents are for domestic abuse/violence. That victims of domestic abuse suffer repeat violent crime more that any other victim of violent crime, 66%, and that 21% of victims will be assaulted more that three times. Conference further notes that in the most recent Scottish Crime Survey one in three women admitted to being abused or frightened by their current or previous partner. Conference recognises that many of these women will be UNISON members and that inevitably UNISON members will be perpetrators.

Conference welcomes the model workplace agreement available from UNISON, however given current research and improving practice believes that workplace agreements need to include provisions on how to deal with employees who are perpetrators.

Conference welcomes the work of Refuge and Respect, national charities working with both victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse/violence, and recognises that their toolkit for employers for dealing with domestic abuse/violence is the most progressive and inclusive available in the UK to date.

Conference instructs the NEC to:

1) To consider how the Refuge & Respect Toolkit could be used to enhance UNISON's model workplace agreement.

2) Lobby the government to make workplace agreements a statutory requirement for all public sector employers in line with their gender equality duty.

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4. See Me Campaign

as amended

The Branch notes that one of the biggest causes of absence in the Council and associated bodies is stress, anxiety and depression. Statistically one in four people will suffer from mental illness at some point in their life and the purpose of the See Me Campaign is to eradicate the associated stigma.

It offers education programmes and support to sufferers and families alike. This meeting supports these objectives and commits the branch to giving full support to the campaign through sponsorship and profiling these aims wherever possible.

The Branch meeting instructs branch officers to forward the terms of this motion - amended as required - to UNISON Scotland.

This Branch notes that people with mental health problems often find it affects their work adversely.

This Branch instructs branch officers to approach the council to negotiate a specific policy to support people with mental health problems and to help them remain working with the council. In the same way that there is a policy to support people with alcohol problems.

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5. Subscriptions Bands

This Meeting notes with concern that UNISON subscription rates, when reviewed and calculated for individuals, continue to include non contractual payments such as voluntary overtime when clearly the Rule Book states they should not be included. This has resulted in Members rates, unjustifiably, changing meaning that they then have a larger deduction made from their wage than they should.

Furthermore this meeting believes that it is not acceptable to change a members Subscription Band without prior notice. A notification to members would allow a period of time to resolve any issue, about how a Subscription Band was calculated, to be resolved prior to implementation of the change.

This meeting instructs Branch Officers to:

1) Draft an appropriate Rule Change or changes to be submitted to National Delegates Conference in 2010.

2) Engage with both the Local Authority and UNISON (nationally) to try to establish, once again, if the method of calculation for subscriptions can be altered to avoid the above scenario.

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6 Self Organisation

This meeting is concerned at the lack of membership involvement in self organisation and calls for the union at all levels to carry out reviews which would stimulate higher participation. These reviews should be carried out without undue delay. This Branch Meeting instructs branch officers to forward a motion in these terms to Scottish Council and National Delegate Conference.

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7. Response to economic and environmental crises - Putting People First

In 2009 we have seen that the world’s dominant economic powers and institutions are incapable of resolving satisfactorily the economic and environmental crises facing us. The G20 has offered only an attempt to restore ‘business as usual’ on the back of massive commitment of public funds. Current policies seek to make working people pay for government’s measures to keep the financial system afloat and bail out the banks - through spending cuts, attacks on wages, reduced pension rights; while allowing banks to continue to make profits and pay out massive bonuses. The failure of the Copenhagen talks on climate change shows that the governments of the richest countries are not willing to take the steps needed to protect our peoples and our planet.

We understand that solutions to economic and environmental crises must be integrated - two crises, one solution. Both require radical shifts away from the liberalizing ‘Washington consensus’ towards democratic control of national and international economies. Just as neo-liberal economic measures will sabotage attempts to control climate change, in the long run climate change will do immense economic damage, not to mention the environmental disasters for millions across the world.

In order to protect members and services, as well as through industrial struggles trade unions need to build the largest possible alliances to articulate a popular consensus around these positions - at international, national and local levels.

In this regard we note the success of the Put People First coalition in assembling a platform of policies supported by UNISON and mobilizing 35,000 on the march before G20 meeting; also that this provided a framework for further initiatives e.g. the People’s Summit at the G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting in St Andrews in November. We also applaud the involvement of this branch and UNISON Scotland in the Edinburgh World Justice Festival and the Stop Climate Chaos coalition.

As the impacts of the recession unravel and as the consequences of climate change impoverish and dispossess more and more people, such alliances will become more important. UNISON, at local, national and international levels, should seek to lead efforts to sustain and extend these alliances locally, especially to include more trade unions.

We call on UNISON and UNISON Scotland to review the experience of involvement in these coalitions and propose measures for continuing this work, and if possible resourcing it on a more permanent basis. Consideration should also be given to replicating this way of working at international levels.

To be forwarded to Scottish Council and NDC; revised if necessary to take account of circumstances.

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