Equality Officer's Report
to Branch AGM - 2 Mar 05

Diversity in Diction - Equality in Action (DIDEIA)

The most significant development of the last twelve months has been the development and publication of Diversity in Diction - Equality in Action: A Guide to the Appropriate Use of Language.

Work on the guide was prompted by an advertisement, which included the word 'nigger', placed by a member of staff on the County Council Intranet. The Branch immediately produced A Preliminary Guide to the Use of Appropriate Language in the Context of Race, but committed itself to developing broader guidance to cover language issues across the whole of the equality spectrum.

Surprisingly there is no comprehensive guidance on language from the three Commissions responsible for the implementation of anti-discrimination law in this country. The Branch therefore developed DIDEIA in consultation with Branch and Regional Self-Organised Groups as well as the County Council, Fair Play South West, the Intercom Trust, Devon Racial Equality Council, Living Options Devon, Action Group In Later lifE (AGILE) and the UK Youth Parliament Devon.

Two London Boroughs have expressed interest in using DIDEIA as have Dorset County Council, York Citizen's Advice Bureau, ACAS and the Campaign for Racial Equality (CRE), whilst the University of Plymouth wants to use the guide as a teaching tool for social work degree students. The Guide has featured in the Equalities Digest of Dialog (the diversity arm of the Employers' Organisation for Local Government) and the newsletter of Equality South West. Equality North East included a link to the web version guide on their website as have several UNISON Branches across England, Scotland and Wales.

The Branch has been in discussions with UNISON Regional Office and the Wales TUC and South West TUC regarding joint publication of a booklet version of the Guide and this is to be launched at the annual conferences of both the Wales TUC and South West TUC in the next two months.

DIDEIA is already being widely used within the County Council. However the County Council is not prepared to endorse the Guide. Consequently, although it has been circulated to all workplace representatives for distribution to members, it has not been issued to all County Council staff and councillors as we would have hoped.

UNISON has therefore made clear to the County Council that the Branch expects all members to comply with the spirit of the Guide and that the Branch will support any member who may rely on the Guide in relation to the language or behaviour of anyone they come into contact with in the course of their work.

Equality Forum

It has become apparent over a period of time that the current arrangements for dealing with equality issues in the Branch are not working as well as they might be. Self-Organisation is limited and there is no real co-ordination of equality issues.

It is also apparent that the equality issues that arise during other negotiations may not be dealt with consistently. A recent example of this was where the County Council's Best Value Review of workforce planning took on board the comments of the UNISON representative on the Review Team regarding representation from Black and Minority Ethnic groups, but conveniently ignored more challenging aspirations expressed over an extended period of time through the Council's Equality Steering Group.

During the autumn a group of Officers and activists, facilitated by Jon Dunn, met twice to discuss a way forward. The result of those meetings is a proposed Equality Forum, the draft constitution of which is attached at Appendix 1 for information.

Recruitment

In their advertising material the Prison Service makes it clear that all applicants must declare whether they are members of groups or organisations that the Prison Service considers to be racist. The Branch referred this to the Director of Personnel and Performance and the Head of Recruitment Services. The Director of P&P has now indicated that the issue will be considered as part of a whole scale review of the County Council's recruitment standards.

The Branch also referred the issue to the UNISON Regional Secretary who has now passed the details on to the Heads of Health and Local Government at National Office. We have also been in contact with the Prison Service and have received a comprehensive reply from them about the background to the policy, the legal basis for it and the level of support within the Prison Service for the approach.

Equality Learning and Development

UNISON was involved in the tendering process for the contracts for delivering equality training to the County Council. After a long and stringent process, four suppliers were selected to deliver a range of training options across the whole equality spectrum. Initial training programmes have begun and have been generally well received. We need to ensure that there is strong management so that training places are taken up by the people who need to implement the equality agenda rather than simply those who are already committed to it.

British Sign Language Recognition Conference

The County Council is currently doing a lot of work with the Deaf community in Devon. As part of this it will host a conference on Saturday 19 March at County Hall. The Council has attracted two national speakers well respected by the Deaf community (Clive Mason and Clark Denmark) and there will also be some local speakers. It is hoped that the conference will attract around 100 delegates with a 50 / 50 split between service providing organisations and Deaf people and the Branch has agreed to contribute £200 towards the cost.

Bank Holiday Entitlements for Part-Time Workers

UNISON has been in discussions with the County Council for some time to resolve the issue of bank holiday entitlement for part-time staff. The Council currently operates an arrangement under which part-time staff are only given time off for bank holidays if they fall on a day when the employee would normally be working.

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service advice leaflet on Holidays and Holiday Pay, which can be found at www.acas.org.uk/publications/al03.html, states:

The Part-time Workers (Prevention of less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 provide that part-time workers should not be treated less favourably than full-timers in regard to their contractual terms. As most bank and public holidays fall on a Monday, those staff who do not normally work that day could be disadvantaged. Best practice suggests that such workers should be given a pro-rata entitlement of days off in lieu according to the number of hours they work.

The Branch has therefore produced a letter to all part-time members of UNISON highlighting the issue and including a standard letter for staff to send to their line manager to request bank holidays pro rata to the hours they work. Copies of these are attached below. Please pass these on to any part-time colleagues who have been unable to attend the AGM.

Yacob Cajee
Equalities Officer
1 March 2005

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Spring 2005

All Part-Time Members of UNISON

Dear Colleague,

Bank Holiday Entitlements

The Branch has been in discussions with the County Council for some time to resolve the issue of bank holiday entitlement for part-time staff. The Council currently operates an arrangement under which part-time staff are given time off for bank holidays if they fall on a day when the employee would normally be working.

In general terms, this means that if you work at the beginning of the week you will be entitled to more time off for bank holidays than if you work at the end of the week. For example, if you work 18.5 hours per week, normally on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning, during 2005 you will be entitled to seven days paid Bank Holiday. However, should you normally work Wednesday afternoon, Thursday and Friday, you will only be entitled to Good Friday off with pay. If you work part-time hours spread across the whole week, you will be entitled to all eight bank holidays and will receive pay pro-rata to the hours you work.

The Branch believes that this arrangement is inequitable and discriminates against part-timers, the majority of whom are women and has proposed that bank holiday entitlement should be pro-rata to the hours an individual works. This already applies in one Directorate of the County Council. Under this arrangement if you work half-time, you would be entitled to half the bank holidays, regardless of which day of the week you worked.

The County Council contests this and is not prepared to alter the bank holiday entitlements of all part-time staff because of the cost implications. However, the Council has previously agreed that it will give grant pro-rata entitlement to anyone who asks for such a change in writing.

To make this easier, I enclose a copy of a standard letter you can use to request pro-rata bank holiday entitlement if you wish. (Note that if you currently work at the beginning of the week, under a pro-rata system you may lose some of the bank holiday entitlement you currently enjoy).
Please send your letter to your line manager. Please send copies to the Personnel Section at County Hall and to me in the UNISON Office, Matford Lane Offices, County Hall.

Yours sincerely,

Moira Macdonald,

Branch Secretary
Enclosure

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[insert your address here]
[insert date here]
Dear

Bank Holiday Entitlements

Devon County Unison has been in discussions with the County Council for some time to resolve the issue of bank holiday entitlement for part-time staff. The Council currently operates an arrangement under which part-time staff are given time off for bank holidays if they fall on a day when the employee would normally be working.

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service advice leaflet on 'Holidays and Holiday Pay', which can be found at www.acas.org.uk/publications/al03.html, states:

The Part-time Workers (Prevention of less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 provide that part-time workers should not be treated less favourably than full-timers in regard to their contractual terms. As most bank and public holidays fall on a Monday, those staff who do not normally work that day could be disadvantaged. Best practice suggests that such workers should be given a pro-rata entitlement of days off in lieu according to the number of hours they work.

I therefore believe the County Council's current policy is unfair and discriminatory, and I am writing formally to ask that my entitlement to bank holidays should be pro-rata to the hours I work, regardless of my work pattern.

Yours sincerely,

cc. Director of Personnel
UNISON Branch Secretary

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Appendix 1

UNISON Devon County Branch - Equalities Forum Constitution - Final Draft 12 Jan 05

1. The Equalities Forum will be called 'the Forum' in this constitution.

2. The Forum will be a network of Branch Officers for Equalities and the Self-Organised Groups and recognised UNISON Representatives* who also qualify as Self-Organised Group ('SOG') members. By invitation from the Forum, other activists from outside the SOG framework may be co-opted as members. The Forum will exclusively comprise UNISON members working within the Devon County Branch ('the Branch') group of employers ('the Employer').

3. For this purpose, the term 'self-organisation' is deemed to cover Black and Minority Ethnic; Disabled; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender; Women; and Young members. This definition may be modified or widened at any time to include other equality groups by means of a two-thirds majority decision of the Forum or following any national UNISON policy decision requiring changes to membership participation structures.

4. The objectives and the tasks of the Forum shall be to:

a. ensure that all Branch and Employer organisations, structures and committees talk effectively with and listen to the aspirations and issues of SOG members, and that such organisations, structures and committees both eliminate discrimination against SOG members in their policies, procedures and practices and positively promote policies, procedures and practices founded upon age, disability, gender, race, religion / belief and sexual orientation (and any additional criteria identified by the Forum) as Equal Opportunities issues;

b. appoint representatives to Branch and Regional UNISON bodies such as the Branch Executive, Branch Committees, Stewards Groups, Regional SOG Committees, and Regional Council;

c. represent Equalities issues throughout Employer-led equality management and staff consultation structures, steering groups or networks;

d. influence and advise Branch policy and JCC negotiating strategies on Service Conditions and any other employment or service delivery issues affecting SOG members;

e. facilitate consultation with SOG members by the Branch and the Employer, and comment, from an Equalities perspective, on Branch and Employer strategies and documents;

f. support individual SOGs and the Branch to develop and sustain the self-organisation of members and achieve proportionality and fair representation in all internal structures;

g. advise and arrange appropriate education and training for individual SOGs and the Branch to promote understanding of, expertise in, and good practice on Equalities issues;

h. with the assistance of SOGs, the Branch Executive and Steward Groups, ensure that awareness of, commitment to and participation in Equalities activity is encouraged from all parts of the Devon County Branch; and

i. where necessary, work with other UNISON Branches, Trade Union organisations and Private, Voluntary or Community sector equality groups and networks in the South West region as a means of pursuing common objectives and supporting and involving isolated members.

5. Each SOG shall be a distinct organisation in its own right but under the auspices of, integral to and supported and resourced by the Forum and, by extension, the Branch. In this context, being supported and resourced includes both financial support and negotiation of specific facility time within the corporate agreement for the union duties and activities of equality officers and representatives.

6. The Forum shall normally meet four times a year and will be chaired by the Branch Equalities Officer. All meetings should be held in accessible venues and at convenient times, and access and childcare needs will be met as appropriate.

7. At an annual meeting, the Forum will nominate a Branch Equalities Officer for election by all members of the Branch at the AGM. The Branch Equalities Officer need not be a Branch Officer with responsibility for any individual SOG.

8. The Branch Equalities Officer and Branch SOG Officers (the 'Officers') will form the Forum Committee (the 'Committee'). The powers of the Committee group will be to determine all matters affecting the Forum between ordinary meetings of the Forum. The Committee will normally meet as required between Forum Meetings. All decisions of the Committee must be reported for endorsement to the next available Forum meeting.

9. The Officers will represent the Forum on the Branch Executive. Other members of the Forum may be co-opted from time to time to act as an alternate for Officers in carrying out this function.

10. All matters of voting procedures, the calling and timings of meetings etc shall be agreed by the Forum itself or the Committee if the Forum delegates it the power to do so.

11. This constitution may be amended at any quarterly meeting of the Forum, or at a special meeting convened for that purpose, provided that a copy of the amendment and notice of the meeting are distributed at least 15 working days beforehand to all Forum members. An amendment must receive the support of at least a two-thirds majority of all those voting at the meeting, for it to be carried.

12. The funding for Forum and SOG meetings and activities will be met from the annual allocation provided by the Branch Executive. Finances will be administered by a single budget-holder on behalf of the Forum and SOGs.

13. The Forum will prepare an annual submission to the Branch Executive as part of the Branch's budget-setting procedure, setting out the financial and other resource needs of the Forum and the SOGs, for the following year.

* Includes Branch Officers, Stewards, Health & Safety Representatives, Union Learning Representatives, and Lifelong Learning Advisers. Excludes informal roles, such as workplace contacts.