2013 Approved Energy Conference Motions
Motions (as amended)
approved at the
2013 Energy Service Group
Conference
Monday 17th June 2013
Liverpool
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2013 Approved Energy Conference Motions
Motion 1
Conference and Seminar: Pooling Our Resources
The motion, submitted by the Scottish Electricity branch, was NOT CARRIED
Composite A
Call Centres
Submitted by the United Utilities branch, the National Women’s Committee
and the National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Committee
UNISON welcomed the publication of the call centre charter, launched last year at this
conference. The Charter was based on research on call centres and call handling operations by
Professor Charlotte Rayner of Portsmouth University (report author), who has a distinguished
career in research into workplace bullying.
The Charter seeks to establish a decency agenda, allowing members to work effectively and
efficiently in a safe working environment and calls on all employers who have UNISON members
working in a call centre or in call handling operations to commit to improving the standards which
those staff operate under. This includes ensuring that staff are able to take sufficient breaks
away from the workstation and are not monitored to an unreasonable extent. Conference notes,
however, that at a time when employers are cutting back on costs and resources, including
staffing, there is increased pressure on employees to respond and deal with calls quickly.
This Conference further notes that:
a)
An increasing number of UNISON members, particularly within the Energy service group
work in a call centre environment face poor working conditions and practices including
restricted access to a toilet.
b)
In some call centres employees are expected to logon to PC equipment prior to shift start
time and be ready to take calls at 8.00am with no pay for being there 10 minutes prior to
start time, which equates to over 1 weeks unpaid time over the course of a year.
c)
The introduction of systems such as Totalview Telephony gives employers even greater
access to monitoring of employees, with promises that the system gives “a complete
overview of the status of the employees” and that “employees always know where their
colleagues are.” Whilst such systems promise better service and cost savings for
employers, there is also the potential for management abuse, in micro-managing staff and
monitoring their activity to an excessive degree. This can lead to increased stress,
bullying and harassment, particularly when managers are themselves under pressure to
meet unrealistic targets.
d)
Though practices in call centres have improved over the past 10 years, there are still
disproportionate levels of workplace stress, bullying and harassment which in turn leads to
a higher than average level of sickness absence. While any worker can be subject to
bullying, conference recognises that some groups of workers are particularly likely to
experience bullying and harassment, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) workers.
This Conference therefore calls on the Energy Service Group Executive, working with
appropriate committees and sections in UNISON, including the Business and Environment
Equal Opportunities Working Party, the National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
Committee, the other self-organised groups and Young Members Committee to:
i)
Promote the call centre charter to branches, and encourage them to negotiate with
employers to sign up to the charter;
ii)
Ensure that branches have the necessary advice and guidance to support them in
negotiating reasonable working standards in line with the charter.
iii)
Devise an easy to understand checklist in regards to what falls within the Working Time
Regulations to allow branches to challenge such inappropriate instances as those listed.
iv)
Specifically develop the equalities dimension of the Charter.”
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2013 Approved Energy Conference Motions
Motion 2
The Next Step For Meter Readers: Training Support For Our Displaced Meter
Readers
The motion, submitted by the East Midlands Regional Energy Committee, FELL because there
was no-one at the conference to move it.
Composite B Pensions
Submitted by the Manweb branch and the Scottish Electricity branch
This Conference notes that the Government is proposing to allow companies to override the
pension protections which were implemented when the electricity Industry was privatised. These
guarantees were one of the few protections won by trade unions during the Thatcher
government’s relentless drive to privatise public services. The 1990 Electricity Regulations
prevent private employers from reducing the benefits or increasing the pension contributions for
“Protected Persons”.
In most cases this has meant that all members of the final salary schemes, protected and nonprotected have enjoyed the same protections as employers have been reluctant to introduce two
tier pension schemes. This proposal would also affect employees in the rail and coal industries
where similar protections were conceded at privatisation.
With the introduction of the new single tier state pension in 2017 the government will be
removing the contracting out provisions. Contracting out allows employees and employers to
pay reduced National Insurance contributions and opt out of the State second pension, known
as SERPS or S2P. Once contracting out is ended employees and employers will have to pay full
NI costs - an extra 1.4% for employees and 3.4% for employers on all earnings between £5k
and £40k.
Whilst employees will be expected to shoulder the full burden of their increased NI payments,
the employers have protested to the government about their increased costs and demanded the
right to push these costs onto employees via reduced pension benefits or increased pension
contributions. The “Protected Persons Regulations” are an obstacle to this and the government
is therefore proposing to allow employers to override them and claw back increased employer NI
costs from pension schemes in the electricity, rail and coal industries.
Not only will this mean employees could be hit by increased NI contributions and reduced
pension benefits, it also sets a dangerous precedent in allowing the Protected Person
Regulations to be overridden
Conference calls on the Service Group Executive to:
i)
Oppose this measure and lobby the government to have these proposals dropped.
ii)
Campaign for employers to pay their share of the increased NI contributions and oppose
any attempts to reduce pension benefits or increase contributions for any employee.
iii)
Make contact with other unions affected by this measure to encourage a joint campaign
against these proposals.
iv)
Write to all Energy branches explaining the potential impact to members and seeking their
support for this campaign.
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2013 Approved Energy Conference Motions
Motion 3
The Impact of the Regulator on Pay and Conditions in Utility Companies
Submitted by Energy Executive
Conference notes the critical role that both Ofwat and Ofgem play in regulating the privatised
utilities. It also notes that despite the role of the regulator, profits within the utility businesses
have increased to record levels making the owners and key executives very wealthy.
Despite the increased profits members have seen their pay and conditions attacked over a
number of years. This is most evident in the pensions that members in the industry receive.
Most members in the industry will have in the past received a defined benefit scheme as
standard giving a degree of certainty for them when they retired. Today very few defined benefit
schemes in the industry remain open for new starters and some are now closed altogether. This
is a deplorable situation which will lead to considerable insecurity for members when they
approach retirement.
The difference between a defined benefit scheme and defined contribution scheme is immense.
Companies make huge savings when they switch from a defined benefit scheme to a defined
contribution scheme. This saving is actual money not paid to members and in reality reflects s a
huge wage cuts for thousands.
This situation we note is being encouraged by the regulators who see attacking pension
provision and wider pay and conditions as quick wins to make savings and drive down cost to
energy consumers. This is clearly the preferred approach rather than tackling the profiteering by
the owners.
This green light to the utility companies has not delivered any real gain to consumers as costs to
them have continued to increase.
This conference calls on the Service Group Executive to:
i)
Formally raise these concerns with the regulators in a robust manner. It should be made
clear to them that UNISON members are not the reason why energy prices have risen so
much and driven so many households into fuel poverty.
ii)
Raise this issue with the Energy Minister to ensure our concerns about the regulators
actions are registered.
iii)
Via Labour Link and other appropriate channels within UNISON, raise this issue with
opposition spokesperson to ensure our concerns about the regulators actions are
registered.
iv)
Co-ordinate our concerns with other trade unions in the utility sector to ensure that any
response is as effective as it can be.
Motion 4
New Human Resource Initiatives
Submitted by the Scottish and Southern Energy branch
In recent years the industry has seen the widespread introduction of new human resource
initiatives. These include performance management, personal improvement plans, revised
sickness policies. Such policies are introduced on the pretext of modernisation and improved
efficiency.
Academic research shows there is little economic benefit from such policies and confirms the
view that they are mechanisms introduced to reduce the workforce and to disregard statutory
requirements. These policies have been seen to encourage managers to disregard equalities
legislation. They also develop spurious assessment criteria to increase stress on staff and force
them out without statutory compensation.
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2013 Approved Energy Conference Motions
Conference calls on the Energy Service Group Executive to:
i)
Conduct further investigations as to the true nature of these policy changes.
ii)
Issue guidance to stewards and members facing the introduction of such changes.
iii)
Publicise abuses of such policies.
Motion 5
Recognising Problems With Regard To Hot-Desking
Submitted by the Western Energy branch as amended by the Energy Executive
As energy companies strive to maximise their profits, we note with concern the use of ‘’hotdesking’’ as an employer tool to avoid investment in work space.
This is particularly true of call centre operations where staff is accommodated on a first come
first served basis. However the use of hot desking is now more widespread and affects large
number of our members who are forced to desk share simply to avoid unnecessary additional
business costs.
Hot desking has two distinct disadvantages. Firstly there is a health and safety issue where staff
work in close contact with their colleagues often resulting in an uptake of airborne related
illnesses. Secondly the denial of quality personal space has an adverse effect upon our
members’ well-being who often feel they are treated as the equivalent of battery hens and may
find this experience de-humanising.
We call upon the Energy Service Group Executive - in conjunction with the any relevant party to conduct a survey into to how prevalent the use of hot desking has become and to highlight our
growing concerns over health issues and the denial of personal space at the workplace which is
adding to stress to our members.
Motion 6
Energy Affordability
Submitted by Energy Executive
UNISON has a proud and proven track record in campaigning against consumer exploitation by
UK energy companies. We have had to make the difficult and often divisive arguments in
speaking up for consumers against the vested interest of huge power company giants. This has
often placed us in the difficult position of criticizing our employers whilst at the same time
recognizing that our representatives have a need to forge a strong working relationship with the
same employers to ensure members share in the rewards for their often life time commitment to
the Industry.
At the same time we understand and accept the need for long term investment in energy
generation capacity from private financiers, often foreign based. This is particularly important in
ensuring we support a diverse mix of fuels including eco-friendly wind, tide and solar generation
as well as the traditional coal (including clean coal technologies) and oil and gas fired stations.
However despite these considerations it remains clear that Energy prices continue to rise by
inflation busting percentage price increases and the big seven energy companies are able to
dominate the ‘’competitive market’’ to such an extent that price rises move ever steadily upwards
almost at a whim and these companies are easily able to enhance and protect their considerable
profits to the detriment of many hard pressed family households.
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2013 Approved Energy Conference Motions
Fuel poverty is now at its highest ever recorded level. The generally accepted definition of fuel
poverty is a household that spends 10% of its income on domestic fuel. In the UK today it is
calculated that 7-8 million customers are now in fuel poverty and this affects 10-12 million
people living in households.
Our Industry regulator OFGEM is either unable or unwilling to investigate whether the energy
markets are being manipulated and the only Government response is an on the hoof declaration
by David Cameron that power companies must place customers on the most economic tariff.
His quest for popularity was so fast that he had not even discussed it with his Energy Minister
and his plans soon unravelled as energy executive after energy executive lined up to slate his
initiatives as unworkable. Clearly Cameron’ s vested interest clashed with their own!
We call upon the Energy Service Group Executive to:
i)
Highlight the sustained and growing concerns about fuel poverty and to work with lobby
groups to raise the awareness of the issue which is particularly unfair on poorer
households and householders where home owners have special heating needs e.g.
elderly occupants or disability needs.
ii)
We request OFGEM to conduct an immediate feasibility study as to how individuals can
be supported in seeking maximum clarification of their tariffs to ensure they are not being
over charged and can make realistic judgements on tariff values. In this regard tariffs
should be made simpler, both to understand and to compare company rates.
iii)
Provision needs to be afforded for vulnerable customers to ensure the industry recognizes
this group and we call upon the Energy Executive to support branches to encourage their
members to contact their energy companies to ensure they are receiving the best deal
from their energy supplier. There are schemes that are available to help people who are
struggling with their fuel bills such as the Warm Homes Discount Scheme but energy
suppliers do not always make this information clear for their customers when it is in their
benefit for customers to apply for these payments.
iv)
All members should be encouraged to look at their choice they have to change supplier
and to seek the best deal around for them and we call upon the Energy Executive to
approach the NEC with a view to working with UNISON Welfare to produce publicity that
conveys this message to members
Motion 7
Green Deal
Submitted by Energy Executive
The conference notes that the Coalition Government launched the Green Deal in Jan 2013.
This supposed deal was introduced to encourage households to make their homes more energy
efficient by having works carried out with little upfront cost but instead paying the costs via
energy bills over a many years.
As well as the potential impact on energy efficiency, the green deal will have a impact on staff
employed in the energy industries.
The proposed measures have however led to a great deal of confusion and take up rates are not
at the levels required for this initiative to have any substantial impact on the levels of household
energy consumed. As a result at a time when more households are being forced into fuel
poverty and efforts to reduced environmental damage from energy production continues to be a
major issue, the government backed scheme represents a huge and damaging missed
opportunity.
This Conference believes the government should reconsider the green deal scheme and look
instead at launching a national domestic energy efficiency drive funded by the receipts
generated by carbon taxes. This approach is advocated by the energy bill revolution and has
considerable wide ranging support.
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2013 Approved Energy Conference Motions
The conference therefore asks the Service Group Executive:
i)
To monitor the take up rates of Green Deal schemes to provide scrutiny of the policy and
challenge the results.
ii)
To monitor the impact of the Green Deal on staff employed in the energy industry and to
seek to counter any adverse effects.
iii)
To write to the Secretary of State for Energy asking him to explain the low take up rates of
the policy and challenge him on alternatives such as that advocated by the Energy Bill
Revolution ‘EBR’.
iv)
Via Labour Link and other appropriate channels in UNISON, ask for a meeting with
members of the shadow energy team to understand the Labour Party’s response and how
UNISON can work constructively on behalf of members.
Motion 8
No Place for Transphobia
Submitted by the National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Committee
Conference welcomes progress made by UNISON over many years in negotiating for equality in
our energy workplaces. However, conference is concerned that equality considerations fall
down the agenda in the face of cuts, reorganisations and redundancies.
Conference is further concerned that transgender workers face particularly extreme
discrimination when seeking work and once in work. To seek to avoid this discrimination, many
people delay their gender reassignment for many years. However they pay a high price for this
in terms of their health and well-being.
Conference notes that many energy managers are unaware of their responsibility to trans staff
and prospective staff. Further, many of our energy workplaces do not have equality or antiharassment policies that refer specifically to gender identity or gender reassignment. Nor do
policies or practices address the particular issues that may arise for trans workers in relation to
sickness absence policies, dress codes, criminal records checks and other pre-employment
checks.
Conference calls on the energy service group executive, working with the business and
environment equal opportunities working party and the national lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender committee, to urge all energy branches to:
i)
Brief workplace representatives and stewards, using the ‘UNISON introductory guide for
union representatives supporting trans members’, which provides background information
and detailed advice.
ii)
Check their employers policies and practices against the good practice set out in the
UNISON bargaining factsheet ‘Transgender workers rights’.
iii)
Identify where policy and practice falls short, support individual members and seek to
negotiate improvements.
iv)
Report back on bargaining gains and successful cases to build our database of good
practice.
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2013 Approved Energy Conference Motions
Motion 9
Raising the Profile of Black Activists
Submitted by the National Black Members' Committee
Raising the profile of Black activists in the electricity and gas industries and increasing the
number of Black members involved at branch, regional and national levels within the Energy
service group and wider union is critical in meeting the UNISON’s recruitment and organising
objectives.
Conference also notes the Leadership School where activists can take steps to develop their
leadership skills and take up positions of increased responsibility. Members who have attended
this school have gone on to become branch secretaries and employed staff.
Black members play a valuable role in ensuring the union and branches identify and take up
equality issues and actively challenge discrimination in the workplace. This is key in meeting the
unions current challenges as no workplace where discrimination exists can be truly organised.
Conference calls on the Energy service group executive to work with the NBMC to:
i)
Work with the NEC to promote achieving fair representation of Black members in
membership to branches in line with UNISON rule and UNISON Code of Good Branch
Practice.
ii)
Remind branches and members of the support and guidance available to Black members
to become activists.
iii)
Work with the NEC to identify funding for joint initiatives that will encourage Black workers
to join UNISON and become active within its structures.
Motion 10 Training and Development of Black Workers
Submitted by the National Black Members' Committee
Conference is concerned about the lack of development opportunities for Black members
working in the Energy industry. For instance British Gas Business Spinneyside have a large
proportion of Black members, most are on L8 with less L7 (team managers) and fewer at senior
management and above. This is disproportionate considering the number of Black members
working on this site.
Conference believes that the employer has a duty of care towards its employees, particularly
under-represented groups to ensure that relevant training is made available to progress within
the organisation.
In these challenging times of financial constraints, it is likely that most employers will not have a
training budget despite the proven benefits in increased productivity by making available training
and development opportunities for their workforce.
Conference notes that racism is still in existence in our society and workplaces. The pervasive
nature of racism continues to blight the employment and promotion prospects of Black people.
A workforce should be representative of the diverse communities that it serves and joint work
undertaken to increase applications from all communities, decrease the skills gap and remove
barriers to promotion and development for Black workers.
Conference therefore calls on the Energy Service Group Executive to work with the National
Black members committee to:
i)
Highlight the difficulty faced by Black members to access training in the energy Industry.
ii)
Remove barriers to progression by increasing training and development opportunities
available to Black workers in the sector, including working with the sector skills councils.
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