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54<br />
1. Build effective relationships with government and<br />
agencies to promote the rights of disabled within<br />
and outwith the workplace.<br />
2. Campaign against discrimination and for genuine<br />
opportunity of employment for disabled people.<br />
3. Build capacity to ensure that Unions Work for<br />
Disabled People.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Committee has worked to pursue these priorities<br />
through a range of strategic activity.<br />
Political Engagement<br />
<strong>The</strong> Disabled Workers’ Committee meeting with the<br />
former Minister for Communities was unable to take<br />
place, due to elections. However, a meeting has been<br />
sought and agreed, in principle, with the new<br />
Communities Minister, Stewart Maxwell MSP. Disabled<br />
Workers’ Conference 2007 was addressed by Shona<br />
Robison MSP, Minister for Health.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Committee has established a relationship with the<br />
Cross Party Group on Mental Health, and Alan McKay of<br />
the Committee, along with the <strong>STUC</strong> secretariat, made a<br />
presentation at a meeting of the Cross Party Group in<br />
December 2007.<br />
Consultation Responses<br />
<strong>The</strong> Disabled Workers’ Committee participated in the<br />
formulation of the <strong>STUC</strong> <strong>General</strong> <strong>Council</strong> response to the<br />
Discrimination Law Review – A Framework for Fairness:<br />
Proposals for a Single Equality Bill for Great Britain (UK<br />
Government) Consultation. It argued for the inclusion of<br />
a number of points relating to general equalities and the<br />
disability strand in particular. All of the points raised by<br />
the Committee were included in the final submission.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Committee also responded to the Department of<br />
Work and Pensions consultation into the provision of<br />
Specialist Employment Services.<br />
Advocating and Acting for Change Project<br />
<strong>The</strong> Committee conceived and played a key role in<br />
promoting the <strong>STUC</strong>’s Advocating and Acting for Change<br />
project, exploring positive activities to promote mental<br />
well-being in the workplace through joint union employer<br />
action.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Advocating and Acting for Change project was<br />
launched at <strong>STUC</strong> Disabled Workers’ Conference 2007,<br />
and the Committee went on to play a role in organising<br />
the first Conference held under the initiative in December<br />
2007. Lesley McCallum, Vice Chair, made a keynote<br />
presentation to the event, which attracted a wide range of<br />
participants, including trade unions, employers,<br />
government officials, voluntary sector and peer support<br />
organisations. <strong>The</strong> Conference featured <strong>STUC</strong> research on<br />
mental well-being in the workplace and is part of an<br />
ongoing process of consultation and discussion aimed at<br />
taking forward a defined programme of activity, to<br />
improve workplace support and partnership working on<br />
mental well-being.<br />
Remploy<br />
<strong>The</strong> Disabled Workers’ Committee continued to provide<br />
strong support for the campaign to save Remploy<br />
factories through media comment and speaking at rallies<br />
and public meetings.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Committee provided practical support to the<br />
organisers of the Remploy Crusade through organising<br />
meeting venues and providing links to MPs, MSPs and<br />
local councillors in Scotland. Letters were also written to<br />
a range of elected representatives, urging their support<br />
for the campaign.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>STUC</strong> widely advertised the Remploy Crusade, lobbied<br />
MPs, MSPs and councillors, and provided media support.<br />
Remploy rallies in Edinburgh and Glasgow were addressed<br />
by the Secretary to the Disabled Workers’ Committee and<br />
the <strong>STUC</strong> <strong>General</strong> Secretary. Messages of support were<br />
conveyed from the Disabled Workers’ Committee.<br />
Procurement<br />
<strong>The</strong> issue of the use of the Public Sector Procurement to<br />
promote equalities was a standing agenda item for the<br />
Disabled Workers’ Committee, which argued successfully<br />
for the <strong>STUC</strong> to lobby for a specific reference to be made<br />
to the Disability Equality Duty within the Scottish<br />
Executive Guidance on the Directive.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Committee was represented at a roundtable event<br />
convened by Jim Mather MSP, Minister for Enterprise<br />
Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, to discuss the role of<br />
procurement in the promotion of sheltered and<br />
supported employment. <strong>The</strong> Committee made a clear case<br />
for the use of procurement to promote equality and, in<br />
particular, to ensure that sheltered and supported<br />
employment continued.<br />
Employability Access to Work<br />
<strong>The</strong> Committee has continued to inform the <strong>STUC</strong>’s input<br />
into the Westminster and Scottish Government’s<br />
employability initiatives, including the <strong>STUC</strong> response to<br />
the Freud Report.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Committee has continued to highlight an employment<br />
rights based approach to employability and has, in<br />
particular, concentrated on the need to remove barriers<br />
to work, and to address negative employer attitudes to<br />
disabled workers.<br />
Through engagement with the Department of Work and<br />
Pensions Customer Insight initiative, the Committee has<br />
highlighted the ongoing lack of advertisement of the<br />
Access to Work Scheme, and the need for additional<br />
funding.<br />
Dyslexia in the Workplace<br />
<strong>The</strong> Committee has promoted the issue of dyslexia in the<br />
workplace through holding a special session at Disabled<br />
SCOTTISH TRADES UNION CONGRESS