North West Weekend School
This Education Weekend School, that was attended by 17 people from across our two regions, consisted of presentations, discussions and workshops on the following three policy areas that Amicus-MSF is actively involved in campaigning work:
  • The Disability Champions initiative.
  • Equal Pay Audits.
  • The Lifelong Learning Initiative.

The Disability Champions initiative

Janet Seymour Kirk, a member of the project steering group, gave a wide-ranging presentation that explained the background to the project, its aims, how people can participate, and what it will mean to Amicus membership both inside and outside the workplace.

Janet also presented the Disability Champions website (www.disabilitychampions.com)

Following a lively question and answer session the group split into workshops that looked in more detail at the role of a Disability Champion and what the initiative will mean to our disabled members in the workplace.

I think the success of Janet's presentation and how well this initiative was accepted by the people taking part is shown by the fact that following the school two more people in the North West, Janette Edwards and Dave Williams, have signed up as Disability Champions. There are now four people across the two North West Regions who will be undertaking the training and actively playing the role of a Disability Champion.

That is not to say the education process is complete. I am sure that all those who attended the school will take material concerning the initiative back to their branches and to their membership and there will be many others who are keen to take up the mantle of being a disability champion.

Equal Pay Audits

Debbie Brannon, a Full Time Officer from NW Coast Region, gave a presentation concerning this project. Debbie explained that while the project has been launched as a national initiative, success will only be achieved if it is translated in to work by reps and stewards in the workplace.

Debbie's presentation was followed by workshops that allowed people to identify and discuss the detail of what was required to make this project a success and to initiate local action.

The reports back from the workshops presented the following ideas that the school agreed;

  • The Regional Councils should prompt a survey of reps to see if the issue of having an Equal Pay Audit has been taken up with their employer or employers.
  • If yes, what were the results?
  • If equal pay doesn't exist, what have they done about it? Were they successful?
  • The school agreed that it was difficult to study equal pay in terms of gender in isolation. When addressing the gender pay gap reps must be aware of differentials in terms of gender at different grades, i.e. to identify if there is a 'glass ceiling' that prevents women from achieving senior positions. If there appears to be, ways of overcoming those barriers must be identified.
  • Reps should also hope to identify any differentials that were the result of race or ethnicity. Is there institutionalised racism that needs to be overcome?
  • There should be follow meetings of workplace reps to allow them to share their experiences, their successes and failures so that we can build upon our experiences and help each other.
  • Where we have low levels of membership, the issue of equal pay and the idea of initiating an equal pay audit should be used a recruitment tool.

The Lifelong Learning Initiative

Nance Green & Kate Oultram, North West Learning Organisers gave a presentation showing how Amicus-MSF has appointed Learning Organisers whose role is to help workplace groups use their new statutory rights to arrange training and support at a local level.

The presentation was specifically tuned to show how this initiative can link closely with the training and education that is necessary to tackle equal ops issues in the work place.

The question and answer session that followed showed how the idea of training learning reps in workplaces has already been widely accepted in the North West. Many people at the school reported how learning reps are present in the work place and performing valuable tasks on behalf of the membership.

Conclusion

I think the school was successful in that the discussions on all three subjects were closely focused on what we as reps can be doing in the workplace. We were discussing very real issues that each attendee at the school can take back to their workplace. I'm sure we all learnt lessons that we can use to directly benefit our members on the shop floor.

Alan Martin