in UNISON

There was a packed agenda with 55 motions
(5 composites) on the agenda for the one day
conference. There was a delay at the start of
conference in order to allow delegates time
to read the standing orders. There was also a
reduction of time to speak from the very start
of conference, which made for some very
interesting speeches.
There were some close run debates with
three card votes. The most anticipated debate
was on composite C, A decent pay increase
for local government members. The
conference voted by almost three to one to
submit a pay claim for 2015-16. There was
also a decision taken that two lay members
will be present at future pay talks with the
employers.
During a day of impassioned speeches and
strong feelings about the impact of the
government’s continuing pay freeze and years
of declining pay in local government, a range
of composites and motions were agreed,
which pledged the union to ensure a wide
perspective on all pay campaigning; to put
women and gender equality at the heart of
campaigning; to work jointly with other
unions and to build bargaining and industrial
strength through a massive recruitment and
organising effort.
Police and Justice
Brighton : 8/10 October 2015
Delegates : Shaaron Coward, Sally Fogell
Motions
As expected a large number of motions
focused on getting UNISON support in fighting
the problems being faced by staff in the police
and justice service group. This includes:
Probation colleagues in both NPS and
the CRCs
Trade Union Bill – impact on staff,
terms and conditions
Austerity measures and reduction of
police staff
Volunteers in policing
Facility time attacks
Future of Police Staff Council
Shift allowances
Diversity
Stress
Threats to future of PCSOs
(Merseyside and the Met have
decided to get rid of their PCSOs).
Outsourcing of SOCO/CSI in an
attempt to save money along with the
loss of 1500 police staff posts
The government’s next comprehensive
spending review due in November was
expected to announce cuts of between 25%
to 40% of budgets and the introduction of a
new police funding formula. The Police Staff
Council is under threat with its funding from
the government only being guaranteed for
another 6 months.
Guest Speakers
Dave Prentis, general secretary, made a
promise that he would ensure that all UNISON
resources would be available to the police
and criminal justice sector to fight the
upcoming battles and that we have his total
support.
Chief Constable Alex Marshall – CEO of the
College of Policing and Police Staff, laid out
the vision of the College of Policing. He made
it clear that the college sees the police family
as a whole, so basically the College of Policing
is for staff and not just officers and wants to
ensure that proper standards of
professionalism are maintained. The college
will develop and provide access to learning
materials so that staff can undergo
continuous professional development and are
working on standardisation of police entry
qualifications for staff and officers in the
future. The idea behind the code of ethics
was to provide a framework to assist in
ethical professional decision making and not
as a guide to how we should live our lives or
for it to be used as a disciplinary tool.
48