RMT LGBT Conference Executive Progress Report

COUNCIL OF EXECUTIVES REPORT

There were four resolutions carried at last year’s Conference all of which are set out in the 2011 Minutes already circulated to delegates. Two of these were submitted to the Annual General Meeting where they were carried. Each will be dealt with in turn.

All resolutions carried at Conferences or the AGM are considered by the Council of Executives in order for them to assess how best they can be implemented. In order to fully consider the resolutions, the process adopted by the Council of Executives is to refer the resolutions to their Equal Rights Sub-Committee. The Sub-Committee then draft a report which is again placed before the Executives. All the reports arising from the resolutions were noted and adopted.

i) Membership Form – Disclosure Option of Sexual Orientation

After debate this resolution was carried at the AGM.  The Statutory meeting of the Council of Executives in September 2011 noted and adopted the following report:

“That the General Secretary is instructed to write to all Unions under the auspices of the TUC asking what practice they use, if any, on their forms and place this information back in front of the Council of Executives so we can implement the AGM decision.”

For the March 2012 Statutory meeting of the Council of Executives the responses were collated as follows:

“Referring to Decision No. CEWW, 22nd August 2011, I wrote to all Unions under the auspices of the TUC asking what practice they use, if any, to monitor the sexual orientation of members on their forms.  From 54 letters sent, 27 replies have been received as follows:


ACCORD

Not requested or monitored

ADVANCE

Not requested or monitored

BALPA

Not requested or monitored

BECTU

Not requested or monitored

BSU

Not requested or monitored

BDA

LGBT identification questions are on the membership form

CWU

Not requested or monitored

HCSA

Not requested or monitored

MU

Not requested or monitored

NACO

Not monitored on the membership form

LGBT membership is monitored through a diversity survey undertaken on a periodic basis

NACODS

Not requested or monitored

NASS

Not requested or monitored

NASUWT

LGBT identification questions are on the membership form

Sexual orientation of Union Representatives is also monitored

NAUTILUS

Not requested nor monitored

NUM

Not requested or monitored

NUT

LGBT identification questions are on the membership form

PCS

LGBT identification questions are on the membership form

PFA

Not requested or monitored

POA

Not requested or monitored

SOCIETY OF RADIOGRAPHERS

Not requested or monitored

TSSA

Not requested or monitored

UCATT

Not requested or monitored

UNISON

Not requested nor monitored

UNITE

An LGBT question has been recently included on their Equality Monitoring form sent out with new membership cards

URTU

Not requested nor monitored

USDAW

Not requested nor monitored

WRITERS’ GUILD

Not requested nor monitored

A draft membership form was drawn up including sexual orientation and transgender options.  The Equal Rights Sub-Committee made amendments, and with these then noted and adopted the following (7 March 2012):

“...we endorse this new membership form, and instruct the General Secretary to ensure that all membership forms produced from now onwards use this format, and that the online membership form is amended similarly.

Further, we confirm that information given by members in this section of the form will be kept confidential, being used only for statistical monitoring and for sending information to those who request it.  In particular, it will not be visible to branch officers or to others accessing the membership database, and will not be included on leavers/joiners or other printouts provided to branches.

We instruct the General Secretary to include an article in the RMT News informing members about the inclusion of this new section and the reasons for it, and advising existing members that they can amend their membership details to include this information if they wish to, and how to do so.

Regional Councils, branches and LGBT Advisory Committee members to be advised.”

The membership and organising department have been informed.  An article in RMT News and circular will be distributed with details as instructed once the membership department has confirmed the necessary software amendments have been installed.

ii) LGBT History

This resolution was passed unanimously at the AGM. The Equal Rights Sub-Committee submitted the following report in September 2011:

“That the General Secretary is instructed to implement the decision by initially liaising on this at the next LGBT Advisory Committee.

        Further, the General Secretary is instructed to write to Brendan Barber         inviting the TUC’s policy officer for LGBT Rights, Peter Purton to attend the next LGBT Advisory Committee meeting.

        We note that the LGBT History Month is in February each year.”

The LGBT Advisory Committee discussed this at their meeting on 2 November 2011 and areas were divided up for members to contribute.  Unfortunately there were not many contributions and the deadline for RMT News had passed.  Peter Purton had not been invited to attend the next meeting however it was noted at the meeting in February that other speakers had been sourced and he could always be invited to a future meeting.

iii) Homophobia at Work

A poster of “Stamp out Homophobia” was circulated to all branches.  The Council of Executives noted and adopted the following report in August 2011:

“That we note a poster has been produced and circulated.  The General Secretary is instructed to circularise Branches about guidelines for dealing with homophobic harassment and the importance of reporting such incidents to employers.”

An LRD/RMT booklet on “Discrimination at Work – a Guide to the Equality Act” which provided guidance on all areas of harassment and discrimination law was circulated in May 2011.  However it does not appear that guidance specifically on homophobic harassment has been drawn up and this will be done.

iv) Production of DVD

The Council of Executives noted and adopted the following report in August 2011:

“That we note this is in production.”

The DVD of the work of the Advisory Committee has been produced and made available for the Conference delegates.  It will be sent out to the other members of the Advisory Committee not in attendance at Conference.  The film is also available to view on the website.