“This branch notes that statistics show that 1 in 4 people suffer from a Mental Health condition at one point in their life. In our union alone, that equates to 21 thousands members experiencing or have experienced a mental health condition. It also notes that Employers are keen to have policies on Mental Health Awareness as well as Absence at Work (AAW) and Managing For Attendance (MFA) policies.
We believe that having a Mental Health awareness campaign or policy is a great move towards combating stigma HOWEVER feel that many Employees who take time off due to Mental Health conditions are subjected to discriminatory behaviour from Employers putting the AAW/MFA policies into practice. Often these policies can exacerbate existing conditions due to stress and worry which leads to further illness and possibly further absence.
This branch asks the union to put pressure on Employers using the AAW/MFA policies in their workplaces to STOP this practice which can discriminate against those with Mental Health disabilities. We also ask the union to put pressure on Employers to make those with Mental Health disabilities exempt from the AAW/MFA policies.”
DMAC believes that there is significant scope for improving the content of RMT's website on disability issues. This could make the website a much more effective resource for our reps and activists, as well as for members and the wider public to see and get involved in what the union is doing.
We strongly believe that involvement of DMAC members is essential to ensuring that the content is appropriate and useful to disabled members and others. We therefore ask the NEC to arrange a meeting with members of the DMAC to draw up a plan to develop the web content.
This could include:
- a readily-accessible 'know your rights' section
- a more comprehensive minutes section
- our 'Disabled Members Speak Out articles collected together in a distinct and readily-accessible section (at present, they are only available in the online RMT News, which is not searchable)
- the DMAC activity plan
- blogs by DMAC members
3. NEC Decisions on Disability Issues
We note that currently, NEC decisions on disability issues are sent to branches and regional councils promptly after they are passed, but are not sent to members of the Disabled Members' Advisory Committee until the following DMAC meeting, which could be several months later.
We ask that NEC decisions on disability issues - in particular on motions submitted by the Disabled Members' Conference and Advisory Committee - are sent to DMAC members at the same time that they are sent to branches and regional councils.
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