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UNISON Equality Scheme: think equality, act equality

The purpose of UNISON's Equality Scheme is to make sure that equality is promoted and discrimination challenged in everything the union does.

Equality is at the heart of our union, written into our rules and into our objectives and priorities. We are rightly proud of our achievements. We have made great strides in fair representation in our own structures. We have pushed the equality bargaining agenda. We have campaigned for and won equality laws. We have challenged discrimination in workplaces across the UK and won justice for our members. The challenge now is to embed equalities into everything we do, not just our dedicated 'equalities' work.

We are currently developing UNISON's first Equality Scheme, which will be for 2008-2011. It will include equality actions for all UNISON functions, internal and external. It draws on - but is not limited to - the statutory duties on public bodies to promote equality. UNISON has no statutory duty in this area. Our Scheme will be unique to us as a public services trade union with over 1 million women members, many of them low-paid, part-time workers, and a strong history of organising and giving a voice to traditionally under-represented groups of members. We already have well developed organisation of black members, disabled members, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members, women members and young members on which to draw.

It will be a single, integrated Equality Scheme. It will cover the main discrimination grounds of GB law - age, disability, gender, gender identity, race, religion/belief and sexual orientation. Because one of our founding aims is to tackle low pay, this will also be integral to our scheme. Some parts of the union may include other dimensions, for example UNISON Northern Ireland may incorporate additional grounds, to reflect Northern Ireland legislation.

• We have identified the first trailblazers, who will start the work of developing out Equality Scheme. This will then provide a model for the rest of the union and advice to other functions on completing the actions of phase one:
• an equality audit tool and training package;
• guidance on prioritising, linked to UNISON objectives and concept of 'proportionality'
• impact assessment strategy
• equality action plan pro forma

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