NIPSA Equality

May 2016

News from the Equal Opportunities Committee

A Year in Review

NIPSA’s Equal Opportunities Committee

Programme for Government Equality Commission’s Recommendations

Exploding Myths

Working towards Racial Equality in Northern Ireland

Tinnitus

The Ceaseless Noise

History of Women’s Struggle ICTU’s Women’s Conference

Gender Equality

Gender Equality in Northern Ireland Public Service

Domestic Violence

Branch 734 helps to raise awareness

Disability Discrimination

Reasonable Adjustments in the Workplace

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A Year in Review The work June 2015 to May 2016

Alanagh Rea, Chair, NIPSA Equal Opportunities Committee

Welcome to this issue of Equality News produced by NIPSA’s Equal Opportunities Committee.

The first thing to say is that we have a motion going to Conference this year to change our name to the Equality Committee as we believe this name better reflects the work of the committee. As always, it has been a very busy year for the Committee and this brief overview is only an indication of the work that we have been involved in.

Racism and Migrant Workers We organised this event in February 2016 and held it in Volunteer Now in line with NIPSA policy to use, wherever possible, non- commercial, unionised and v a l u e - fo r - m o n e y venues. The service that we received from Volunteer Now staff was exceptional.

The event was attended by almost 40 NIPSA reps

and members and the feedback from them on categories of content, format, venue location and facilities and event organisation were all rated as excellent and the comments reflect the quality of speakers and attendee participation.

NIPSA was represented during the year on the NIC/ ICTU Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Committee

by Sean Paul Conlon and Pat Gray. We continue to distribute information to branches to raise awareness and involve members in relevant issues and events and circulated the TUC major Race at Work survey to branches We submitted a response to OFM/DFM Racial Equality Strategy consultation and as a member of the Common Platform continued to put pressure on the NI Executive to publish the Strategy and after intense pressure it was agreed by the Executive in December 2015, including proposals to review the current legislation and actions to tackle hate crime and racially motivated bullying.

Disability The major focus of our work on this issue continues to be raising awareness of issues facing our members with a disability, engaging with NIPSA’s Disability Champions and equipping our reps and Disability Champions to deal with the many varied and sometimes very complex issues that they encounter. The Disability Champions Forum that we set up continues to provide support, training and exchange of knowledge and experience for our Disability Champions. We held several Forum events during the year including an excellent session on Tinnitus.

We continue to work with employers to ensure Mental Health and Disability Leave Policies are developed, are active, monitored and reviewed.

Latest news from the Equal Opportunities Committee

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of NIPSA’s Equal Opportunities Committee NIPSA was represented on the NIC/ICTU Disability Committee by Marcel Dummigan and Tina Creaney of the Equal Opportunities Committee and they attended regular NIC/ICTU committee meetings and attended the annual ICTU Disability Conference in Waterford. We are pleased to report that Marcel was elected Chair of the NIC/ICTU Disability Committee in recognition of his work in this area.

practice, followed by feedback sessions and next steps, finishing with lunch. If any branch wants a workplace discussion, a presentation or literature, then the Equal Opportunities are happy to provide this.

Domestic Violence

We continue to be concerned about the impact of cuts to public, voluntary and community services for women and of the impact of austerity on a woman’s ability to leave an abusive relationship.

We know that the cost of domestic and sexual violence in NI is estimated at £888.5 million (DHSSPS/DOJ 2014) and Women’s Aid provision across NI is less than 1% of this total cost. Welfare reform measures and cuts to vital services and Department budgets will narrow the options for women seeking to free themselves and their children from abusive relationships and exacerbate the poverty already experienced by those who leave abusive relationships.

Available and appropriate housing is another key resource for women fleeing domestic violence situations.

Domestic Violence continues to be a major issue both for NIPSA members and wider society. We continue to promote and campaign on this issue.

Our actions have included securing seats for our full-time official and members of the Equal Opportunities Committee on Area Domestic Violence Partnerships in Belfast, Western, Southern and South-Eastern, Trust Areas. We participated at a consultation event organised by the Northern Ireland Women’s European Platform on Beijing Platform for Action and Violence against Women and Girls. We encouraged branches as part of the international campaign for 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence to raise awareness of Domestic Violence as a workplace issue, to include it as a standing item on the agenda of Branch Health and Safety Committee meetings, and to take action in accordance with information contained in the NIPSA Domestic Violence Guide. We know that branches have taken our suggestions on board.

In my own place of work I gave a presentation to Corporate HR personnel and other colleagues from across my workplace, starting from the basic as to what Domestic Violence is, right through to workplace policies and recommended actions. We also had a LGBT staff event on 15th May opened by the Lord Mayor, setting the scene, sharing good

There are many serial domestic violence perpetrators in NI and we support measures, such as a Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, being introduced to address this issue.

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The Impact on Women of Recession and Austerity A report, The Impact on Women of Recession and Austerity (TUC 2015), outlines how women have been affected by changes to the labour market and the cuts in public spending in the past 7 years and seeks to help trade unions prioritise action to defend the most vulnerable women in the workplace and society. We supported the launch of the Women’s Manifesto and its use to lobby politicians. In NIPSA’s Public Defence campaign we need to continue to pay attention to groups such as women and disabled people who are being impacted on disproportionately by cuts to welfare and services.

LGBT LGBT is the remit of NIPSA’s LGBT Group but I just want to mention a LGB event that I attended this month organised by the Equality Commission for NI, Promoting LGB Equality – Key Issues and Good Practice. This was an excellent seminar and I want to highlight one presentation given by a teacher and 4 students from Hazelwood Integrated College. In January 2014, a student approached a teacher to set up a support group for LGBT students in the college. Their initial meeting was attended by 20 students and they quickly made the decision to be a group open to all staff and students called Gay, Straight, Whatever. They have engaged the Principal of the school, the Board of Governors, staff, students, parents and the community, as their partners. Two students have trained 100 staff on homophobic bullying, they display antihomophobic posters in school, hold assemblies to address the issue of homophobic bullying, provide training for all staff on how to confront homophobic language, have met with political and religious representatives, spoken at the Equal

May 2016

Marriage demonstration and represented their school at events such as Belfast Pride. They want Hazelwood College to be a safe place for LGBT students and staff.

Equality Legislation and Consultation Developments The Equal Opportunities Committee responded to a number of key public consultations including: OFM/DFM Childcare Strategy; DOJ The Criminal Law on Abortion – Lethal Foetal Abnormality and Sexual Crime; DOJ NI Human Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy 2015/2016; OFM/DFM Extension of Age Discrimination Legislation to Goods, Facilities and Services; DOJ Domestic Abuse Offence and Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme.

NIC/ICTU Women’s Committee During the year Geraldine Alexander and I represented NIPSA on the NIC/ICTU Women’s Committee. We were represented at the ICTU Women’s Conference in Mullingar on 3rd and 4th March by Geraldine Alexander, NIPSA Assistant Secretary, Tina Creaney from the Equal Opportunities Committee and Valerie Shields Chairperson of Branch 535.

Equality Newsletter An Equality Newsletter was published during 2015 and articles were published in NIPSA News on key equality issues and events.

Cyber Bullying Seminar The Equal Opportunities Committee has decided to organise a seminar on cyber bullying in June so watch out for this being distributed to branches.

Enjoy the rest of this issue of Equality News.

Latest news from the Equal Opportunities Committee

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Programme for Government

Equality Commission’s Recommendations

The Equality Commission has set out its recommendations in relation to the Programme for Government (PfG) and Budget of the NI Executive. They have highlighted the need for a clear commitment in the PfG to address key inequalities experienced by Section 75 groups, underpinned by robust measures, as well as a commitment to promote good relations. They also recommend the PfG makes it explicit that promoting equality of opportunity and good relations are cross-cutting themes across all Government strategies, policy development and actions. They call for specific actions to:

Social Attitudes

●● Challenge prejudicial attitudes, behaviour and hate crime, so as to ensure that workplaces, services, public spaces and communities are free from harassment and/or discrimination across the equality grounds.

Education

●● ensure a move to a system of education which routinely teaches pupils together via a shared curriculum in shared classes, and where sharing impacts meaningfully and substantively on every learner; ●● mainstream equality in education, including in the curriculum, teacher training and the policies/practices of schools and wider education bodies; and tackle prejudice based bullying; ●● address education inequalities, including those experienced by Irish Travellers; Protestant working class boys; disabled children/young people; ●● address gender stereotyping in education and remove the barriers facing looked after children and young carers.

Employment

●● support women’s economic participation, including through access to appropriate, accessible and affordable childcare;

●● address the exploitation of migrant workers and the concentration of some minority ethnic workers in low paid employment; ●● support disabled people to access and remain in the workplace; ●● ensure training and programmes to enable people to access and progress in work that is accessible and inclusive for all.

Access to Social Protection

●● protect the most vulnerable from the adverse impact of welfare reform, particularly mindful of the impact on people with disabilities and women, minority ethnic communities (including asylum seekers and refugees); ●● identify/commit to specific measures which will mitigate the adverse impact of welfare reform, or any alternate policies which might better achieve the promotion of equality of opportunity.

Participation in Public Life and Decision making

●● increase the participation of women in political/public life and decision making, including peacebuilding; ●● promote the participation of other underrepresented Section 75 groups in public life, including people with disabilities, LGB people, older people, and minority ethnic communities.

Reform of Equality Law

●● reform and strengthen equality law across a number of equality grounds, including age (as regards the provision of goods, facilities and services), race, disability, sex, fair employment, and sexual orientation; ●● reform wider areas of the law that impact on Section 75 equality groups.

See the PfG recommendations in full available to download here http://www.equalityni.org/ Delivering-Equality and also Section 75 and Budgets: a short guide for public authorities, http://www. equalityni.org/Employers-Service-Providers/PublicAuthorities.

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May 2016

Migration seminar explode

Panel from left to right: Andrea Montgomery, Alastair Donaghy, Kasia Garbal, Alanagh Rea, Luke Butterly and Justin Komame.

NIPSA has held a special seminar looking at the issue of migration in both its global and local contexts and exploring common misconceptions about the issue.

worldwide, out of which 20 million are refugees, constituting 3.3% of the global population.

Migration, in general, makes a very important positive contribution to social and economic The seminar was held in Volunteer Now, Belfast, development both in the countries of origin and on February 26th and came against the backdrop in the countries of destination. However, one of growing concerns about increasing numbers of cannot ignore the cost of migration to developing racist attacks and hate crimes in Northern Ireland. countries in the form of a brain drain as well as the Currently, there are 244 million migrants plight of individual migrants who often become victims of human trafficking, sexual and labour exploitation as well as racist crime in their host countries.

It is unfortunate that public debate around immigration in the UK has become increasingly toxic and immigrants are being demeaned and demonised in both the right-wing press and mainstream media.

The ongoing refugee crisis and the potential of a Brexit from the EU have intensified xenophobic and negative attitudes towards immigrants.

William Olphert.

The seminar looked at the public perception of the size of the migrant population as a percentage in the UK – a perception that was shown to be grossly overestimated. The public’s average guess was 31%, whereas it is actually around 13% (according to an Ipsos Mori research carried out in 2014). In Northern Ireland, the total migrant population stands at 4.3%.

Latest news from the Equal Opportunities Committee

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es myths and media scares Interestingly, the public perception of who the migrants are also reflects our current fears, for example, refugees were mentioned disproportionately by over 30% of respondents, whereas in reality refugees only make up about 5% of the migrant population. This has been termed “imagined immigration”, which is characterised by complex cause and effect, as we usually overestimate certain groups because they worry us.

Interestingly, the level of acceptance of migrants also depends on the type of migration, i.e. professionals versus unskilled, income, age and region. However, it has been found that newspaper readership is much more likely to be significantly related to concern about immigration than any other measure. It does not necessarily prove a causal effect, however one can’t ignore that there is a reinforcing interaction between the public, politicians and the media.

as all which came to the EU (population of 508 million) last year.

The session then moved to the response by the UK government and the public, noting the positive effect the latter had on the former in terms of increasing the number of refugees accepted into the country.

It then looked at current and incoming laws and policies that make the UK a ‘hostile environment’ for those attempting to seek sanctuary, noting with particular concern the current criminalisation of movement and the proposals to remove the meagre support to asylum seeking families.

The session concluded with some of the positive steps taken by the local administration here, such as extending free accredited English classes to all refugees and keeping legal aid for family reunification cases.

The event then focused on some myths which are in general circulation about immigrants.

The mantra, “I’m not racist, but…” is usually followed by a statement about immigrants stealing jobs, social housing, claiming benefits they are not entitled to, putting undue pressure on public services and generally contributing nothing. The presentation challenged those misconceptions with localised information in relation to the number of migrants, social housing allocated to Peter Shirlow. them as well as the economic and social benefits of greater diversity.

It was also stressed that there is a need to continuously challenge negative stereotyping and promote the positive contribution immigrants are making to our economy and to society in general.

The seminar also gave an overview of the international situation regarding refugees and forced migration, noting that the vast majority of the almost 60 million refugees are hosted in neighbouring countries or are internally displaced.

A single camp in Ethiopia (a country with a population of 94 million) held as many refugees

Alanagh Rea , Alastair Donaghy.

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May 2016

The Ceaseless Noise, That Nobody

misunderstanding and possible loss of job. If the employee mentions the tinnitus they can become anxious and feel if Occupational Health are involved that they are not supportive because they do not comprehend the difficulties and may suggest the employee should make a decision about being in work or taking early retirement on grounds of ill health. The employee may become so stressed that they need to go on sick leave and then return still stressed and hiding their condition as often employers are not knowledgeable about tinnitus and its impact. Employees tend to go on sick leave for stress but the tinnitus is the main cause.

As one client said ‘I just thought they wouldn’t really understand and I felt embarrassed that this wasn’t visibly apparent as a physical illness would be’. My advice to employees is be open about it, and get the necessary information about tinnitus from ENT, Sensory Support Teams or Action on Hearing The impact of tinnitus is different for people but Loss. Some clients also have hearing loss and it is some of those listed include: isolation, frustration, vital to have an Access to Work check carried out in lack of sleep, lack of concentration, lack of case there is equipment that could be provided to understanding from friends, family and colleagues, assist and any reasonable adjustments that would stress, anxiety, depression and impact on mental make life easier for the employee. health. The impact of these can contribute to Some people experiencing tinnitus also have causing great difficulty for those with the condition hyperacusis, an oversensitivity to sound or and particularly for those in the workplace. Thus it hearing and in this case noise becomes a further is vital that both employee and employer discuss difficulty. If the workplace is a noisy environment it is important that attention is given to ear these difficulties.

Often the employee is struggling to cope, protection and that employees wear it. It can particularly in early days, and afraid to mention be difficult to get the balance right but with the it to colleagues or Line Managers for fear of correct assistance this can be overcome so again Tinnitus is the medical term to describe the noises people hear in one ear, both ears or in the head (or a combination of these) that does not come from an external source. This condition is experienced by 10% of the population and for 1% the impact is severe. So who can have tinnitus? The condition is experienced by people with normal hearing, those with hearing loss and it is possible to be profoundly deaf and have tinnitus. Tinnitus is an electrical activity on the neurons on the auditory nerve and is perceived as a whistling, humming, buzzing, throbbing, musical notes, or machinery like noise or a combination of some of these, and can be of a high or low frequency. It can be continuous or intermittent and there are various causes of tinnitus, for example, ear wax or infection, hearing loss, exposure to loud noise, head injuries, menieres or vertigo and some medications (check with GP if concerned) and stress.

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Knows you Suffer with

Joyce, Tinnitus Sufferer

ask for support. Where an employee works in a large office an employer may be able to find an alternative working area where there is less noise.

However, if the employee is a Line Manager, it is important that consideration is given to keeping them close to their team, and not set aside in an office a couple of floors away as this can increase stress and isolation.

To employers I would advise that if a member of staff has tinnitus and you are not familiar with the difficulties information should be sought immediately. The staff member is likely to be distressed, angry, confused and anxious dealing with psychological difficulties as well as the practical difficulties in work and these are often worse when an employee first develops tinnitus.

It is important that they are reassured. The best advice is to ask the employee what they need in terms of support. Once this has been identified the employee will relax and gain more control of their condition and control is the essence of life.

It can take some time for people to learn the management techniques to enable them to cope and control their response to tinnitus. Action on Hearing Loss offer a short talk to staff by the Tinnitus Support Officer who has tinnitus and this can help provide information to employers and the employees’ colleagues. The more information both employee and employer receive creates a greater understanding and helps to reduce the anxiety and fear of the condition. One tip I would give is not to ask the employee every day ‘How is

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the tinnitus today?’ This may be seen as a caring comment, and of course is well meant, but if the employee has gone into work and is not thinking about the tinnitus this will immediately make it high profile again.

In addition to the Tinnitus Support Service, Action on Hearing Loss Northern Ireland also provide a range of other services for people with hearing loss and deafness, this includes: ●● Running free Hear to Help clinics throughout Northern Ireland to assist people with their hearing aids; ●● An information, advice and equipment service; ●● A befriending service which aims to reduce isolation amongst older people with hearing loss; ●● An employment service, supporting people who are deaf or have hearing loss to find work, education and further training; ●● We provide qualified, experienced sign-language interpreters and other communications professionals; ●● We work with the Northern Ireland Assembly, service providers, and other organisations to campaign to improve services for people with hearing loss, deafness and tinnitus; ●● We run Ireland’s only specialist residential care home for people who are profoundly deaf and have additional needs, in Harkness Gardens, Derry/Londonderry.

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History of Women Some 200 delegates gathered in Mullingar for form the majority of part-time workers, North and the 2016 ICTU Women’s Conference on March 3rd South. We are all too familiar with the growing casualisation of work that has become endemic in and 4th.

NIPSA was represented by Tina Creaney, Vice- sectors such as hospitality, retail, education and Chairperson of the NIPSA Equal Opportunities care.”

Committee, Valerie Shields, Chairperson of Branch The Dunnes Stores dispute highlighted some of 535 and NIPSA Assistant Secretary Geraldine the worst examples of bad employer behaviour, where the company controlled workers’ hours to Alexander. suit its needs.

Themed 100 years “We cannot underestimate the value of the stand taken by those brave Dunnes Stores workers.

There is no doubt in my mind that we would not have seen the Opening the conference, comprehensive University ICTU General Secretary of Limerick review on low Patricia King spoke both hour contracts had the about the advances made dispute not happened.” on gender equality to date She described the lack as well as the challenges of affordable, quality that remained. She said childcare as “one of our that gender inequality largest infrastructural remained a “persistent deficits”, meaning that feature of life on this parents across Ireland island,” pointing out that women were disadvantaged in work, still carried North and South faced “some of the highest a disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care childcare costs in Europe”. work and were severely under-represented in the “In Northern Ireland, Congress argued that if a childcare strategy is to succeed then the Northern political, economic and administrative systems.

In contrast, women were over-represented in Ireland Executive must consider legislative sectors were pay was low and work precarious, measures such as those applying elsewhere.” of struggle, delegates debated a wide range of motions and heard from guest speakers on the history of women’s fight for equality.

“Women are the ‘managers of poverty’ in low income households,” Ms King continued, “and form the majority of parttime workers, North and South”.

with some 65% of those earning the National Ms King also referred to the Gender Pay Gap in her speech. She told delegates that the latest Eurostat Minimum Wage being female.

“Women are the ‘managers of poverty’ in low figures showed the gap stood at 8.8% in Northern income households,” Ms King continued, “and Ireland and 14.4% in the Republic, adding, “Interestingly, it stands at 17.7% in the UK (2015).”

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n’s Struggle Key theme of ICTU Women’s Conference 2016 She pointed out that much of Northern Ireland’s progress was explained by the increasing numbers of women working in the public sector, “where equality of pay is more prevalent, while in private sector occupations women earn less than men.”

trade union movement had “a lot of ground to make up” on the issue.

Delegates were told Ireland was also out of line with European standards with regard to economic decision-making, which called for 40% female participation on non-executive boards.

However, she said the movement could “take great heart” from the success of the civil marriage equality referendum and called on delegates to “work even harder” to support the civil marriage equality campaign north of the border.

Ms King commented: “Only state boards have shown improvement in the representation of women at one-third, compared to private company board representation at 9%. This figure is just 5% among Ireland’s Top 500 companies of whom 43% have no women at all on their boards. This is despite the fact that women account for nearly half of the current paid workforce.”

Patricia King also admitted to delegates that the

“Well over half our membership is female, while our leadership roles are predominately occupied by men.”

Ms King continued: “Gender equality is more important now than ever but our official track record is bad. The commitment of those in power to address these issues is questionable. The most effective way to advance gender equality is through organisation in our workplaces.”

Pointing out that an essential step in reducing

Below, left to right: Tina Creaney, Vice-Chairperson of the NIPSA Equal Opportunities Committee, Valerie Shields, Chairperson of Branch 535 and NIPSA Assistant Secretary Geraldine Alexander.

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inequality was to lift workers out of the low pay trap she called for all workers to earn as a minimum “no less than the Living Wage, on properly structured banded hour rosters”.

May 2016

paid work was not “an equal experience for women and men” as women tended to be concentrated in low-paid and part-time jobs.

The motion stated: “79% of female employees She added: “That would be a real gain for female work part-time, many on zero hour contracts with neither job security nor decent conditions workers and a big step forward for equality.”

In her contribution, ETUC Confederation Secretary of employment, unable to access tax credits most Montserrat Mir spoke about the gender equality needed by the poorest families.

“Two-thirds of those earning the minimum wage agenda at EU level as well as the ETUC response.

Ms Mir paid particular tribute to those Irish women or below are women and women on average earn who had dedicated their lives to fighting for 12.5% less than men. Cuts to working Tax Credits/ equal opportunities, and for better lives for future Universal Credit systems have a higher impact on lone parents, mainly women, than on any other generations. group.”

She noted that cuts in social investments, as well as in gender and equal opportunities policies, The motion also claimed that Welfare Reform had led to “a step backwards” in a number of EU would mean that women would be further countries including Ireland North and South, disadvantaged.

Spain, Greece, Portugal, Italy and a number of It continued: “Not only have women lost out on social security relating to pregnancy and children, countries in Eastern Europe.

However, she claimed the response to these but women have also lost more than men as developments was “not national… but European”. a result of housing benefit reform, the change from RPI to CPI in the uprating of benefits and the Ms Mir told delegates: “The ETUC is the voice of benefits cap.” all European unions, and works to ensure that the voices of all women in the EU are heard and The motion also flagged up how cuts to services listened to. With this objective, we have urged the – Sure Start Children’s Centres, sexual and European Commissioner responsible for gender, reproductive health services and domestic Vera Jurova, to draw up a new European Strategy violence refuges – had likewise impacted heavily on women. for Gender Equality.

The movers of the motion called on government to: “We have the support of the ETUC affiliates, and ●● Carry out meaningful equality impact the majority of EU governments have sent letters assessments before spending decisions were to the Commission calling for a new strategy.” made; Other speakers at the two-day event included ●● Monitor the impact of their decisions had on Mary Muldowney, who talked about the role of women and revise policies when it was clear women in 1916, and Margaret Ward who gave a that there was a disproportionate impact that history of the struggle for women’s suffrage. could not be justified; ●● Introduce a dedicated women’s employment The Conference debated a number of motions on strategy to address the dominance of women social exclusion and inequality, including NIPSA’s in low paid work and recognises social motion on Women and the Economy. infrastructure and the value of women’s skills and labour; and The NIPSA motion, which was unanimously adopted, highlighted the fact that household ●● End public sector pay freezes and caps; introduce stronger legislation on equal incomes, poverty rates and the labour market had pay audits, greater pay transparency and all worsened in Northern Ireland over the last five better quality part-time and flexible work years. opportunities.

The movers of the motion flagged up the fact that

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An investigation of Gender Equality Issues at the Executive Level of the Northern Ireland Public Sector All Executive Level Positions

Key Findings

Males hold the majority of Chief Executive positions (79%)

29.2% 70.8%

Organisations with a female Chief Executive or Chair employ greater numbers of female executive and non-executives respectively at board level.

Gender Composition for Executive Director and Non-Executives

by Organisational Type Senior Civil Service 26.5%

Local Government 32.8%

Non Departmental Public Bodies 28.9%

Health and Social Care in NI 44.4%

Further and Higher Education 35.8%

Executive Directors

Executive Directors

Executive Directors

Executive Directors

Executive Directors

73.5%

67.2%

71.1%

55.6%

64.2%

32.5% Non Executives

67.5%

23.1%

Detailed findings of the research can be obtained by contacting Professor Joan Ballantine: Email: joan.ballantine@ulster.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0) 28 9036 6204

46.2%

31.4%

Non Executives

Non Executives

Non Executives

Non Executives

76.9%

72.4%

53.8%

68.6%

Male University of Ulster Business School Office of First and Deputy First Minister

27.6%

Female

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May 2016

Branch 734 helping to raise awareness of Domestic Violence NIPSA Branch 734 along with other trade unions in conjunction with the Western Health and Social Care Trust held an event in The South West Acute Hospital to raise awareness of domestic violence. This event focused on the range of support available to those who are victims of

Lucia distributes NIPSA’s Guide to Domestic Violence to Trust staff.

domestic violence and it served to reaffirm the Trust’s commitment to supporting staff through the application of the Domestic Violence Policy along with staff side who are there to support members who are victims of domestic abuse and to signpost to appropriate services. The Western Trust and Trade Unions are keen to demonstrate their commitment to this important issue and enhance and strengthen existing arrangements.

In attendance were a number of speakers from within the Trust, the community, voluntary and statutory organisations as well as a range of information and advice stands, such as the Carecall, Women’s Aid, Men’s Advisory Project, The Creative Path and Drink Wise Age Well. NIPSA General Council member Lucia Collins attended in her role as NIPSA’s representative on the Western Trust Domestic Violence Partnership. The event was very informal and those attending found it very informative and many links for future collaboration were made.

Latest news from the Equal Opportunities Committee

 

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Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and Reasonable Adjustments in the Workplace The NIPSA Disability Champions forum held on 7th April 2016 heard about the experiences of members with a disability working in the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) in relation to a review of its DDA priority pool listings. This was a matter that had caused a lot of concern particularly as the review had not been subject to full and proper consultation with NIPSA through the Central Whitley Council arrangements. Indeed the concerns of the Central Whitley Trade Union Side had been aired at a meeting of the CWC Equal Opportunities Committee.

some (any) reasonable adjustment had been made, the person was taken off the DDA list. Trade Union Side objected to this on the basis that a partial adjustment simply alleviating problems meant that further action was required to fully address the needs of the member of staff with the disability. In such cases the individual should remain on the DDA list. This would often be the case in relation to locational transfers where a post in the required location is not available so an alternative transfer is arranged until a post in the desired location becomes available.

In the report to the forum it was noted that NIPSA had been apprised of the intention to conduct a review of the DDA priority pool but that was the extent of the consultation. It should be said that the objective of Trade Union Side was to ensure the need to have staff with a disability appear on the DDA list kept to a minimum. However, this was on the basis of Departments and managers proactively meeting DDA requirements and the needs of their staff with a disability, by facilitating reasonable adjustments and the provision of training, equipment and where necessary alternative postings etc.

At the time the review and interviews were taking place Trade Union Side was also meeting NICS Officials in relation to different aspects of equality being promulgated throughout the NICS by means of a Diversity Champions project. Trade Union Side highlighted the need for the NICS to properly resource all dimensions of equality.

Trade Union Side has insisted at the Central Whitley Equal Opportunities Committee that those removed from the DDA list should have an opportunity, with trade union representation, to have the decision reviewed and an opportunity to present a case where appropriate, for their name to be reinstated.

Unfortunately staff that were on the DDA list were summoned to meetings without knowledge of its purpose to be advised that their name was to be removed from the list. This was an arbitrary decision without the opportunity to appeal it.

These meetings also took place without the member of staff being afforded the opportunity of having trade union representation, even in cases where trade union representations had already been made on behalf of that member of staff. It also appeared that the review was conducted on the basis of a paper exercise by the panel undertaking the review. Although there was input from the Occupational Health Service (OHS) this may not have provided sufficient medical input particularly where mental health issues were involved. A number of assumptions also appear to have been made. For example in cases where

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