Equalities
Frustrating
year but still winning equalities cases
1998 has been a frustrating year for Equalities.
The Equalities Committee has only managed to meet once
out of 11 scheduled meetings. The other meetings were inquorate and this
has left myself and other branch officers to make decisions and representations
and advise other branch committees after the event.
This is not a healthy situation. Not only is it an unaccountable
and undemocratic way of working but it also lays more work at the door of
branch officers who already have high workloads.
If you are considering putting your name forward for this
year’s committee please accept you must make every effort to participate
in out monthly meetings.
If we cannot ensure our meetings are quorate, then we have
to accept Equalities will not play a significant role in this branch.
Health services hit
We have also had a difficult year on the negotiating front.
Despite our protestations the authority externalised their
counselling service and have withdrawn clinical breast examinations from
their Well Woman Programme. Health is an equalities issue but our employer
seems to consider that, because there are other outlets, they can simply
turn their backs on the issues.
This at the same time as they introduce absence monitoring
procedures. The whole issue of health facilities in the workplace is being
pursued at a national level as a result of our branch raising the matter
at a range of conferences and seminars.
Failure to harmonise
A feature of the year has been management’s resistance
to progressing harmonisation on a series of fronts such as job sharing,
harassment and career breaks. Time and time again the authority creates
problems for itself because of different conditions applying to different
people.
Let’s hope the next year will bring a focus to harmonisation
rather than the continual threats of privatisation on the back of “Best
Value”.
Self Organisation
The self Organised Groups continue to meet, with the Womens
and Lesbian and Gay groups now well established. A welcome aspect has been
the increasing activities on the disabled front and I am sure a Disabled
members Group will be established in the near future.
Conditions successes
The past 12 months have seen a greater role for Equalities
in service conditions work. That role will have to develop as we move into
Single Status but it has been an effective partnership with cases being
won on issues ranging from pay enhancements to time off facilities. A particular
success was the use of the Disability Discrimination Act to improve working
conditions for a member of staff suffering from Multiple Sclerosis.
Discrimination
Equalities should not be seen as a luxury. It affects us
all. Discrimination exists in many forms whether it is physical, sexual,
religious or any other category. The possibility of being discriminated
against faces all of us in one form or another. Let us make sure the next
12 months strengthens the role of Equalities throughout all the workings
of the branch.
My job has been made that little bit easier because of
the support of other branch officers but mostly because of the dedicated
work of the office staff. Many thanks must go to them.
Irene Stout |
