Illustration: Sam Osborne
The government’s Employment Rights Bill will make wide-ranging improvements to working life. Among these, the legislation features several measures to progress workplace equality, including improvements to flexible working and protection from discrimination.
To ensure these new rights exist in practice, not just on paper, the bill also introduces paid time off and facilities for trade union equality representatives, which will mirror the rights of union learning reps and trade union officials. The details of these new rights will be confirmed in a new ACAS Code of Practice, but UNISON celebrates the measure, which has been sought by unions for a long time.
Working on both sides of the fence
Samantha Wright, the equality rep for UNISON South West Utilities, says more paid time will enable her to do more proactive work to ensure that members know their rights.
“Facility time will give us more time to communicate with members. If you can send a weekly communication to 900 members, that’s potentially 900 people facing fewer challenges at work,” she says.
For example, according to Samantha many people simply don’t understand their flexible working rights – and nor do employers.
“I represented someone who was the single parent of an autistic child who had a lot of caring responsibilities. Their child was transitioning from primary to secondary school and the member wanted to reduce their hours by half an hour each day. The manager tried to say they wouldn’t stay on top of their workload, but we managed to prove that the member was in fact going above and beyond targets and there was no reason to say it would have a detrimental impact.”
Equality reps are not there to battle against managers
Samantha became an equality rep after she had a miscarriage in work and was diagnosed with a condition called APS, which increases someone’s risk of miscarriages and pregnancy complications.
“My employer said to me: ‘Why are you still trying?’ and it had such a huge impact on my mental health. I didn’t want anyone else to go through that. Nobody should dictate to you whether you should go through fertility treatment. Over the years, as a rep, I have gone on to support countless people to make sure they get their reasonable adjustments.”
Samantha has also worked with her employer to introduce new policies for parents, time off for fertility treatments and bereavement leave for miscarriages. “Equality reps are not there to battle against managers,” she says. “We’re there to be a sounding board and to help and support everyone.”
She believes that paid facility time will attract more people into the role, particularly if they have care responsibilities that prevent them from being able to participate in union activities outside of their working hours.
“Right now, we do our regional women’s meetings at the weekends because not everyone has paid time to go to meetings during the week. We’re conducting union activity in our own time, and I think people should be paid for that activity.”
Time, time time
Stefania Rulli, who will become an equality rep for UNISON North Somerset this year, agrees: “Having paid time to promote the value of equality in the workplace shows that employers actually value that work, and the people doing it,” she says, “As a rep, the most valuable thing is time, time, time.”
Stefania feels compelled to become an equality rep by the broader political climate. “Equalities reps play a critical role in the political time we’re living in. Where there’s so much populism and hatred and different factions that promote discord, combating that division is really important.”
“My personal passion is women’s rights and there are strong forces at play right now that are against women that we need to work together to counteract,” she adds.
“As a migrant woman who has been in the UK for over 30 years, I’m also concerned about the way that immigration is being used as an issue to stir hatred and win votes. Immigrants contribute so much to society and when we work, we’re paying taxes. I can speak firsthand about how it feels to contribute to UK society through my job. The political discourse is so, so alienating.”
Better representation
This kind of recognition means that employers will value what we do, which is representing the voice of the voiceless
Migrant workers’ issues are also important to Sue Magutakuona, a nurse who has been an equality rep for UNISON City Hospital Belfast for three years. She is particularly concerned by the way that repayment clauses work in the contracts of Black migrant workers.
“A repayment clause is the money you have to repay to an employer if you leave within three years,” she explains. “The problem is that they work differently between the private and public sector, and there is not enough regulation. It means that if someone wants to leave their employer but can’t pay the costs, they are forced to stay in a toxic work environment.”
Sue has firsthand experience of this. Her first involvement with UNISON was when she wanted to leave an employer and was told she would have to pay the company £10,000 to cover her visas and flights from Zimbabwe. “UNISON helped me resolve my situation, and I wanted to help others who faced the same.”
For her, more facility time would mean more time to help members. “Sometimes, when you’re also working your job, you don’t get enough time to help someone who is having a problem. More time means you can represent people better.”
Sue also hopes that paid facility time for reps will show people that becoming an activist is nothing to be afraid of. “I’ve seen nurses afraid to step up as an activist because they’re worried their manager will look down on them. This kind of recognition means that employers will value what we do, which is representing the voice of the voiceless.”
Big picture organising
David Maskell, the equality rep for UNISON’s Merseyside and West Lancashire branch, hopes that facility time will help different branches become more connected across their equalities work and do big picture organising.
“Right now, I have every second Wednesday as a facility day, but that only gives me time to do my casework. It doesn’t give me enough time to go round and set up equalities groups or meet with other reps.”
David first became a rep 14 years ago and has been heavily involved in advocating for workers with disabilities ever since, particularly in discrimination cases.
“A lot of the time, managers don’t know what people’s rights are,” he says. “I represented a disabled NHS healthcare assistant who was redeployed and then told by the employer that because she couldn’t walk for more than 25 metres at a time, she would be unsuitable for the job. Eventually, we took them to court and won, and she was able to keep her job.”
According to David, equality reps could help prevent situations like this from happening in the first place. “If reps had more facility time, I could spend more time proactively talking with employers about what they can and cannot do.”
More than words on a page
As a union, we see that where employers are innovative and forward-thinking about equalities, they have a more productive workforce
This is what Macarena Plaza Helguero, an equality rep at the Greater London Authority branch, already spends most of her role doing. “We have separate casework reps and as an equality rep I’m the one speaking with management to find out more about their overall strategies.”
“There is a trend in people talking more about equalities now, but it can’t just be words put on a page. Whenever there’s a discussion about equalities I always want to know: where are the actions? That’s why equality reps are important.”
UNISON national officer Josie Irwin says that the new facility time provisions demonstrate that the government is taking equalities seriously.
“It feels like it’s more than a tick list and will actually be put into action,” she says. “This is a good thing for managers and workers alike. As a union, we see that where employers are innovative and forward-thinking about equalities, they have a more productive workforce.”
UNISON will continue to engage closely on the Employment Rights Bill as it makes its journey into law.
The Employment Rights Bill applies to England, Scotland and Wales only. The Northern Ireland government hopes to follow later with broadly similar legislation.
