The Equalities Deficit

Recently, in my role of Equalities Officer I attended a conference entitled 'The Equalities Deficit: Defending opportunity and fairness against the cuts'. Organised by the TUC, the one day conference was aimed at everybody 'who cares about the future of equality'. It was opened by Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC, who spoke of the 'cultural, aspirational and social deficits' being left by the cuts. He spoke of the threats to quality of life now facing many groups at a disproportionate level to others and the widening gaps that were opening up between different sectors of society. What was clear was that nobody would be unaffected by the scale of the actions being taken by the government but that some would be more heavily affected than others and that these people were largely those who were already the most vulnerable in our society.

On the day of the conference new figures had just been released showing that unemployment had risen to 2.28 million and that women’s unemployment levels were at a twenty three year high. It seemed timely then that the TUC used the day to launch a new publication entitled the 'TUC Women and the Cuts Toolkit: How to carry out a human rights assessment of the spending cuts on women'. Women will be one of the groups most heavily hit by the consequences of both past and future cuts as the majority of public sector workers are women, women will lose more in cuts to benefits and are the majority of those providing unpaid care so are likely to be the ones having to shoulder the consequences of cuts to social care provision.

Mary Bousted, General Secretary of the education Union ATL, spoke of the impact of the cuts on children and families, teachers and plummeting levels of optimism within the education sector at a time when youth unemployment was reaching unprecedented levels. She spoke of the 'loss of hope' and the 'dignity of good work' being denied to the young along with the loss of financial support in education caused by the removal of the Education Maintenance Allowance. All this would lead to a generation of young people who feel that they hold no input into society and if you were unlucky enough to fall into more than one of the categories in which people are being disproportionately affected you could watch your chances be even further reduced. Young and Black? Young and a Woman? A woman from an ethnic minority group? Heaven forbid that you should then express a different sexual orientation or religious view. The picture painted was exceptionally bleak.

Rob Berkeley, Director of the Runnymede Trust, an independent policy-research organisation focusing on race and social policy then took up the platform to talk about the impact of the cuts on those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups. His message was one of the impacts of cuts to legal aid with minority groups being the first to experience the impact of the cuts. People from these groups were three times as likely to be unemployed and there already exists a 16% employment gap between black/Caribbean men and white men. Again the picture was one of growing inequality between different sectors of society.

The last speaker of the morning’s plenary session was Maria Exall, chair of the TUC LGBT committee and a member of the Communication Workers Union. She spoke of the shrinking of the state that was happening under the present government and the way the government are using the media to demonise those they are attacking to justify their programme of cuts. Budget cuts to youth support services and support for homeless people has led to young people facing an even tougher situation than previously. All this at a time when they may be coming to terms with a different sexual orientation and the consequences thereof. There have been cuts to services which offer advice and support and who promote education around issues such as sexuality. A lot of these support services available to young people have been taken over by faith-based groups from whom young people find that they can face even further discrimination around certain issues.

Following the bleak messages of the mornings speakers the question on conference attendees' minds was, 'how do we challenge the cuts from the position we now find ourselves in?' The morning workshop I attended was on Organising and Campaigning for Equality. Again the message from speakers was that things would not be easy to challenge and that a lot of campaigns had already been lost. However, there were also messages of hope and inspiration, positive campaigns which had been won and the repetition of the message that we need to stand together in challenging the future cuts that are being proposed.

Jane Holgate, senior lecturer and worker in work and employment relations at the University of Leeds, spoke about the idea of ‘community unionism’, where community-based organising and trade union organising worked more closely together to support each other's campaigns. She put it that if trade unions are to remain relevant in coming years they need to move from a more adversarial form of organising which leads to power issues, groups becoming divisory and self-interested, to a more cohesive stance, supporting solidarity not just across a trade-focused group but organising across workplace issues which affect the whole community. Unions will need to be more inclusive and work alongside organisations such as the Occupy movement, UK Uncut, BARAC and local groups such as Norfolk Coalition against the Cuts to achieve the best outcomes for their members. The future will be about building relationships and alliances, fostering non-conflictive ways of working and making democracy within the unions more inclusive to attract the widest possible member base and build the strength of union organisation.

The afternoon workshop I attended was titled 'Using the Public Sector Equality Duty' and covered issues around using the 2010 legislation as a campaign tool. Questions arose about how we could challenge the impact of the cuts on issues of equality within the framework of the 2010 Equalities Act, an act which many feel has reduced the power of equalities legislation by employers only having to show 'due regard' to equalities issues. Various views were held on this point but there was also mention of a few cases where the new legislation has been used effectively to challenge proposed cuts. When trying to look for the best way to challenge a series of cuts, the Equalities angle is still one which can be successfully used if a proposed measure is likely to disproportionately affect a particular group in society. Equality Impact Assessments will still remain a key part of an employer showing they have shown 'due regard' to equalities issues.

The afternoon workshops were followed by speeches and a question and answer session on areas that had been covered by the conference. There were some powerful speakers including Diana Holland, Assistant General Secretary for Equalities and an elected member of the TUC Women’s committee, Kate Pickett, co-author of ‘The spirit level: Why equality is better for everyone’ and Michael Rubenstein, writer and commentator on discrimination and employment law and General Editor of Equality Law Reports. Again there were a host of different issues raised which were all adding to the overall growing equalities deficit.

The conclusions I reached after listening to the various speakers at the conference were that the cuts are already affecting the most vulnerable in society disproportionately. I think there is little room to argue that they are not. They will continue to divide sectors of society further from each other, worsening equality amongst the population rather than improving it. This will lead to even greater social problems and a far less cohesive society. The thing that really struck me, however, was that at this time groups cannot afford to focus solely on the area that will be affecting them the most. We cannot fight back coherently if everyone is trying to shout the loudest to champion their own views to the detriment of other groups. What we need now is to be united and support each other’s struggles; to stand up and work together in solidarity.

If you find yourself thinking 'Why should I support that, it doesn’t affect me,' then don’t. The cuts are affecting and will continue to affect us all, anyone who works in public services, uses public services, the private sector, those from ethnically diverse groups and from a plethora of different backgrounds. If a cut is affecting women it is also affecting men in that they will see their wives, mothers and families being hit by the impact and they in turn will struggle more. The cuts are affecting young people and older people, those who are working and those who are not. The government and media would like us to believe that we are all separate groups and not interdependent. It makes it easier to break down support for campaigns which are challenging the nature of the way in which the cuts are being imposed. We must challenge these ideas and stand up for each other and the trade union movement has a continued role to play in this.

Following N30 I feel even more strongly that now is the time to stand together in challenging the pain the government's cuts are inflicting on our society. As we have recently seen in the media with the build-up to the strike, the media likes conflict. It makes for a better story and grips people more than hearing that largely there was a lot of support for something. The Equalities Deficit Conference and N30 have shown me one thing; that if we say ‘that’s their problem’ and ignore how cuts will affect a particular group, we can only lose those battles and also our own as others will not support us when we ourselves may need it most. On N30 people from all different backgrounds stood together to challenge the government; trade unions, students, the Occupy movement, workers from across the public and private sectors, pensioners and those unable to work all expressed support for dignity in retirement and challenged the government on proposed cuts to public sector pension schemes. Equality will only stand a chance if we now support each other in working for a fairer society and fighting back together against the deeper inequalities these cuts are causing.

Katherine Osborne is an Equalities Officer in the Norfolk County Branch of UNISON.

Dave Prentis' Speech to Labour Conference

“Conference, today we face a coalition with no democratic mandate - taking a chainsaw to our public services. Public service workers, our members, keeping families and communities together, keeping our children learning, keeping the vulnerable safe. And in our most damaged communities, standing between us and another lost generation. Picking up the pieces, giving rays of hope when it looks so bleak. Putting people on a path to a better future.

“But the services people rely on most, are now targets for swingeing cuts and privatisations. Redundancy notices scattered like confetti. At the time that we need them most, we’re adding public service workers to the dole queue.

“And for those that are left, their living standards squeezed between rising prices and frozen pay. Ordinary people, our people, paying the price for the reckless greed of the rich, and now the Coalition coming for their pensions.

“Pensions that are affordable, worth less than £100 a week. Pensions that they’ve saved for the dignity of an old age free of means-tested benefits. And now they face a punitive hike in contributions. Not a single penny to go into any pension fund, but siphoned off by the Treasury to pay off the deficit, the biggest con trick of our time.

“Expected to work longer for worse benefits. Members who are privatised, cut off from their pension and that is why we have said: “enough is enough”. We’ve spent 8 months in negotiations - searching for solutions. We will continue to negotiate – that’s what we do. But we are now balloting millions of workers for action on 30 November.

“Conference, my members are no militants. But they will stand up for what’s fair, what’s right, and to those who say we shouldn’t strike, who say striking doesn’t work, that we’ll only harm the economy, make things worse, put jobs at risk. Just remember, that’s exactly what they told the matchgirls who shut London’s sweatshops. The gasworkers who won the eight hour day. The builders who fought for health and safety legislation. Our women who won the right to equal pay. Sometimes you have to remind people what you are worth.

“You have to show people what they’d miss if you weren’t there. Sometimes you have to let people know that you cannot be taken for granted. And I want to make it very clear today, if we vote to strike, a hard decision, always a last resort.

“Millions of public service workers and our union will expect the support of their party and its leadership. The campaigns we are fighting are not just about jobs, or pensions, they are about creating the type of society we leave for our children. They are about preserving and defending all our grandparents fought for; a welfare state, universal public services, they’re about saving the gains we made together, while we were in government. Our members have not given up the fight, and nor must our party.

“So conference, it’s no time to sit on the sidelines, while this Government tears down all that we built. It’s no time to sit on the fence when this country faces a stark choice between taking on the powerful and privileged, or letting the price be paid by the poor and the powerless.

“And this - there’s so much talk about reaching out and reconnecting, but now really is the time to reach out to millions of public service workers, to show we are on the same side of the street as them. To those nursery workers fighting for their jobs, to those care workers fighting to protect their services. And yes, yes to the millions fighting to protect their pensions, they look to Labour now more than ever to support them, to speak up for them. They will never forgive us if we let them down and neither will their union.”

Dave Prentis is the National General Secretary of UNISON.

Conference Tuesday

Angela Lynes, UNISON president, welcomed everyone to conference and introduced international guest speakers. She gave a moving address, providing the background to her trade unions activities and a narrative about how she came to take on the presidency of Unison. Angela spoke of a White Line picket, where people line up, without stopping traffic, on the white markings in the middle of the road.


Mike Hayes explained about the challenges that the union was facing due to increased activity and campaigns that we have run. Our biggest challenge is maintaining momentum against the negative actions of the ConDem government. Our new headquarters was opened in April 2011 and we retain ownership of the former HQ at Mabledon Place. We will work with a developer and receive a lump sum of millions of pounds while maintaining the lease of the building for the future.

The real business got underway with Motion 33 - The Big Society, Nothing About Us, Without Us, Is For Us. The Big Society is a cynical programme designed to remove state accountability and sell off our services. Southern Cross was used as a typical example of how this government sees the future of our service delivery responsibilities. It was suggested that David Cameron should also offer us control of banks and big businesses if he wants us to have control as he claims. Margaret Thatcher said there was no such thing as society, only individuals, but now Cameron claims he wants a Big Society when a society made up on UNISON members was delivering on the premise all along. The cradle-to-grave welfare state is the great creation of the Labour Party and we are proud to state that we want a society run for human need, not corporate greed.

Motion 28 referred to the abolition of the Two Tier Code. This refers to the government attempts to remove TUPE tranfer protection from law. The attempted removal of this protection will increase the pace of the race to the bottom. There will be almost no protection for staff transferred and the private sector takes all the profit while the public sector shoulders the risk. It's really hard for us as activists to support staff in workplaces who are on different terms and conditions. The new concept of an 'Easy Council' was discussed - this being a council where all services were put out to tender and seen as easy pickings for private firms eager to cherry-pick profit-making roles.



Motion 70 dealt with campaigning Against the Tory-led Government. There is no strategy for growth in this Con/Dem plan to cut the deficit, merely the dismantling of our welfare state. We need to highlight the lies in government arguments about a 'bloated' public sector and show the real reason for the deficit. There is a movement of national industrial action growing and we want our union to be at the forefront of it. This neoliberal government believes in a small state where philanthropy and business deliver services. Cameron has no plans to reinstate services when the fortunes of our country change, proving that this is an ideological plan rather than an economic plan. The Labour rehetoric emerging from Milliband and Balls that the cuts run "too deep and too fast" is simply not good enough.

Motion 85 called for improvements to the current State Pension. The level recognized as being needed to move out of poverty is £178.00 per week and the state pension is currently £102.15, a £75+ difference. Pensioners are willing to take action over this, they want dignity, equality and no means testing. Pension credit is not claimed by many of those who are eligible and as trade unionists, we need to fight for an old age pension that promotes the things that pensioners want.

Motion 44 called for the support of Sure Start centres. There are about 55 Sure Start Children's Centres in Norfolk and these have now been structured into "lots". Those not currently under the control of a school (10 of them) are going to be put out to tender to external, probably private, providers and this is viewed as an undesirable outcome.


General Secretary Dave Prentis addressed conference after a video of the mass public protest in London on March 26 2011. Eric Pickles and Ed Balls were among the political figures discussed in Dave's address and he urged Cameron and Nick Clegg to go back to the bankers and tell them to clear up their own mess. He also stated that in future we will only support those MPs who support our values, our aims and our goals.

Dave also mentioned the tissue of lies spread by Treasury Spokesman Danny Alexander which failed to engage our membership. He rebutted the government claim that our pensions are unaffordable, stating that we have the fight of our lives ahead to protect our rights but that it is nonetheless one that we can win.

Comp E, named 'Cuts are not the Cure', looked at the government's attempts to remove the structural deficit within four years and doing so by cutting services rather than intelligently applying tax increases. This is a strategy that will hit our communities hard. It is the poor rather than the rich that will face the worst blows and those who played no part in creating the problem are being expected to pay for it. In Norfolk we saw this most clearly with the cuts to all Youth Services, including the Connexions. These young people had nothing to do with the banking crisis yet their future is being thrown on to the scrapheap without a second thought. We need a fair system that offers young people from disadvantaged backgrounds the same opportunities as those with privileged upbringing.

Motion 34 considered how women are hit more by the cuts than men. They are likely to receive lower income, are more likely to be reliant on benefits and are more dependent on the services being cut. Significantly, they are also more likely to be employed in the public sector and be UNISON members. At Norfolk County Council, women members with childcare needs have said that they were told that it's not fair that they should be able to have flexible working, a statement which fails to appreciate their legal right to request it.

Conference Sunday 2011

In the first of a number of daily blog updates, Jo Rust updates us daily from National Conference 2011, currently being held in Manchester. These updates have been edited by Kris Holt.


UNISON's National Conference began in earnest on Sunday with the annual report. A tsunami of cuts are hitting all areas of public life, with the country's most vulnerable being victimised by these savage cuts. Cameron's oft repeated mantra that these cuts are inevitable because the last government maxed out the credit card is a lie - if there is money to pay for wars, there's money to pay for public services.

Dave Prentis is leading negotiations on pensions and we are still in negotiation but if we don't get what we want, we have to be prepared to strike. It is important to win that ballot and win with a majority. We will do it together with our sister unions all over the country and with our private sector colleagues whose pensions have been hit too. The government claim is that the cuts are necessary because we're living longer and things as they stand are not sustainable. However, there is a strong feeling that these attacks are about making it cheaper so we can be taken over by private companies. The message to Cameron, we're the ones who are in this together.

A composite is a type of special conference motion created by merging multiple proposed motions with the same goal. As you might expect, there were a number of motions defending the pension scheme (LGPS) and Composite E defended this. It is time to tackle the notion that our pension scheme is gold-plated - women workers only get an average of £55 a week. The LGPS is healthy, with more money going in than being paid out. It was stated that we need a strong voice from the Labour leader, Ed Milliband.

30th June 2011 is beginning to look more and more like the first general strike as more and more areas are coming out in support. The RMT union are striking on the day over the reinstatement of a member and the prison officers are having a two hour walk out on the day. While our members were speaking in support of Composite E, our General Secretary Dave Prentis was live on Sky News refuting the claims of Treasury Spokesman Danny Alexander.

By making the LGPS more expensive and less profitable fewer people will join it and it'll become weaker for our future beneficiaries. The mantra "pay more, work longer and get less" was repeated by nearly every speaker. Employers have been allowed pension holidays while our members have never been able to take one. Once members are transferred over to the new scheme, they could lose their pension protection. It's down to us to make people understand and become aware because the right wing press are never going to put across our side of the story.


Motion 36 concerned black workers and the LGPS. Pension cuts hit us all but hits black people even worse as they're three times more likely to live in poverty in old age. Black workers are more likely to suffer redundancies. Black women are often the main breadwinners in their households and frequently have two jobs. Conference identified the link between low pay and low pensions and it was claimed that the wealth of the rich has doubled since the 1970s.

Motion 6 dealt with the effect of the cuts on rural communities. These communitites are reliant on private transport but having to cut it back because of rising fuel prices and lower wages. Ironically, those factors mean that public transport becomes increasingly vital. Services have to be delivered differently in rural areas because people can't just walk into the town and get a service in the way that those living in urban areas can. However, the nature of rural communities means that they are often not seen as a priority.

Motion 9 speaking up for Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) equality in a time of cuts in Local Government. LGBT workers have been among then last to gain the protection of the law and they have been disproportionately hit by the cuts. In addition to this, they face being bullied at work but fear to complain while their jobs are under threat.

Motion 16 referred to youth services in crisis. Cuts to youth services are a false economy, reducing access to work and the chance to empower younger people to achieve in future. Youth work enlightens young people, raises self-esteem and aspirations. Attacking the young people of today was described as 'an attack on the future'.

Composite B investigated ways to use equality to fight the cuts agenda. The motion believes that Equality Impact Assessments (EqIA) are the best way for councils to demonstrate that they have placed due regard to their equality duties. The flawed notion of 'Big Society' cannot replace properly funded public services. Some branches play a very active part in the formation of their EqIA and then meet up to discuss lessons learned. A high court judge recently ruled that the changes to equality legislation made no difference to the need for councils to do EqIA fully and properly with consultation, and this made Birmingham City Council change their plans to cut children's services.


Finally, Composite A campaigned against Local Government cuts and for a fairer deal for all. Local authorities are shedding jobs, services and people at an unprecedented level. We cannot support councils who set illegal or irresponsible budgets, instead working with them to set parallel budgets and ensure that they are accountable. Nearly four million children in modern day Britain are living in poverty and some of those live in homes where there is a working adult.

We know that this government is influenced by public opinion and so we have to make sure the public fully understand why we are taking this stance. We need coordinated action between all service sectors and other unions. The Southampton strike is now entering a sixth week of action and we need to support it. Local support remains high despite media lies. Meanwhile, Crawley Council have lent Southampton Council £5 million to help them combat the impact of the strike action but a UNISON speaker from Southampton made it clear that they will never give up the fight. Within UNISON, an injury to one is an injury to all. We must stand together, unite and fight, make the public understand, then we can win this fight.