Sally Hunt
Policy briefing
Equality at work
Many thousands of words have been used to explain the union’s commitment to equality but I am not sure we always get to the heart of the matter and sometimes our use of “equalities jargon” may turn our members off.
Some tell me they think the union places too much emphasis on “equality”, while others say we do not do enough or that what we do is making little difference.
In my opinion, the starting point is that we are all members of the union, and we all deserve equal treatment. The fact remains that whenever members are treated unfairly it impacts upon everyone.
The new union needs to avoid ghettoising equality, not least because many members do not want their relationship with the union to be solely defined by their gender, race, sexual orientation, disability or age.
Much better is to mainstream the work into everything we do, and make sure all members understand that the union is seeking to ensure fairness for all rather than favours for a few.
Both AUT and NATFHE have focused in particular in the past on unequal treatment arising from gender and ethnicity and these remain important. Women, for example, are still more likely to be in casual or fixed term posts and still more likely to be juggling a career with child care, while both black members and women are on average paid less than white colleagues and are still less likely to be promoted.
However, especially in our sector we also have to be increasingly aware of age discrimination, particularly for those both at the start of their careers and towards the end who are often utilised to do the work that others do not have time for.
In our new union I am determined that members should have the space and the structures to make a difference. In AUT, as the official responsible for equality work I pushed hard for and achieved the first formal representation for LGBT, disabled and black members. Action not words.
In the lead up to the new union I also helped to make sure that the structures and representation of UCU were better than either in AUT or in NATFHE. Alongside all the industrial representation on the national executive there is now direct representation for women, disabled members, LGBT and black members. I have ensured too that greater resources, staff and funding are available and I support the early and positive work already done in UCU since merger.
Where next for equality?
If I am elected general secretary these are the equality issues that I want to pursue:
Much better integration of equality work with both the further and higher education industrial agenda
As far as possible , women to be represented by women, black members by black members, LGBT by LGBT etc at all levels in the union
Introduce a new rep training network to encourage greater participation in key bargaining roles from as wide a spectrum of our members as possible
Push hard for equality audits within all institutions
Support test cases which actively target the discrimination intrinsic to fixed term and hourly contract work
Focus resources on developing branch equality representation rather than on internal red tape and endless committee meetings
Concentrate on promoting positive role models for work in both universities and colleges
Undertake a full surveys of women , black members, LGBT and disabled members to identify their priorities and base resource allocation on that priority list rather than on what we think members want
Build strong links with other campaigning groups and the Equality Challenge Unit
Proper support and negotiation for flexible working , childcare support
Identify legal resources which provide specific support for discrimination claims
Training programme for union reps at all levels on equality work
Ensure we put forward representatives within the TUC to all equality committees and conferences and look for as many different members to be involved as possible.
Finally, I think we need to work harder to explain to our members why equality is important. All of this will take time and there will be tensions. Accepting we can all do better is a very positive way to move forward and I hope that together we can tackle inequality in our universities and colleges more effectively as one union than we did as two.
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About me
I am the joint general secretary of the UCU, having been general secretary of the Association of University Teachers since 2002. I have spent the majority of my working life supporting education professionals, and was instrumental in negotiating the merger between AUT and NATFHE to form UCU. If you want to know more about my experience go to my biography.
Join the debate
Nobody has all the answers. I believe that if we are to move forward together we have to listen to each other to establish common ground. If you have any comments about this paper or want to suggest ways of improving our union go to http://sallyhuntucu.blogspot.com/ and join the debate.
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