Disabled and LGBT+ members are invited to remotely attend a series of events organised specifically for them – online and live

Like many other organisations, UNISON has had to cancel many of its conferences and meetings as a result of COVID-19.

But the UK’s biggest union has democracy at its heart and still wants its members to be involved.

With this in mind, UNISON’s disabled and LGBT+ members have organised a series of virtual events in place of their usual conferences – online and live.

We will be holding the following events:

Disability Live! – 19 to 24 October.

LGBT+ Live! – 13 to 15 November.

There will be a variety of online sessions that members can participate in during the events.

These events are only open to UNISON members. To attend Disability Live! you must be a disabled member of UNISON. And to attend LGBT+ Live! you must be an LGBT+ member of UNISON. This is in line with UNISON’s commitment to self-organisation for under-represented groups.

In order to make Disability Live! as accessible as possible, please let us know if there are any adjustments you will need to allow you to take part in a virtual event.

To register your interest in attending either event, please email conferences@unison.co.uk as follows:

Subject heading – the event you would like to attend (if both, please send separate emails)

In your email – please provide:

• Your name
• Your membership number
• Your branch name
• Any reasonable adjustments you need to participate

The registration deadlines are:

Disability Live! –  Thursday 8 October at 5pm

LGBT+ Live! – Thursday 5 November at 5pm

Once you’ve been registered for an event, you will be sent an email giving details of the virtual sessions you can attend, so you can register for these individually. You can attend as many or as few as you like.

So get active! Email conferences@unison.co.uk today to register to attend.

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One in four UK employers would not hire someone with a disability

More than seven in 10 disabled workers in the UK have stopped working due to a disability or health condition, new research from charity Leonard Cheshire has found. 

According to a ComRes survey of more than 1,600 disabled adults in the UK, carried out between June and July 2018, 73 per cent had dropped out of work because of their condition. 

In addition, almost one in five (17 per cent) of those that had applied for a job in the past five years reported their job offer was withdrawn by their employer as a result of their disability. 

Attitudinal barriers proved a significant obstacle in preventing the progression of disabled people, the research found. Almost a quarter (24 per cent) of UK employers said they would be less likely to hire someone with a disability, and six in 10 (60 per cent) of those reported concerns that a disabled person would not be able to do the job.

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