UNISON - membership benefits

Being a member of UNISON not only means having a voice in collective bargaining with your employer, Barnardo's, but provides support from your well trained and experienced officers and stewards.

Barnardo's members are better off in UNISON because;-

Value for money

Most union contributions represent only around half a percent of workers' earnings but the pay back is considerably greater.

Support at work

You have the legal right to be accompanied by a trade union representative if you have a workplace grievance or if you are facing disciplinary action.

Better pay - especially for ethnic minority and women workers

Trade union collective bargaining produces a better rate of pay for workers. Average earnings are around eight per cent higher in workplaces where the bulk of the workforce is covered by collective bargaining.

Black and Asian trade unionists earn almost a third more than their non-union counterparts. For white workers the union premium is ten per cent.

Pensions

Workplaces are more likely to have a pension scheme where a trade union is recognised for the purposes of collective bargaining.

Sick pay

Workers in unionised workplaces are more likely to get sick pay paid at higher than the statutory minimum than those in non-unionised workplaces.

Annual leave

The average trade union member in the UK gets 29 days' annual leave a year compared with 23 days for non-union members.

Equal opportunities and family-friendly working

Workplaces with union recognition are 20 per cent more likely to have an equal opportunities policy than workplaces where no union is recognised and 12 per cent more likely to have parental leave policies in place.

Women in unionised workplaces are better off in terms of career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and support for family responsibilities than women in non-union workplaces.

Job security

Trade union members are only half as likely to be sacked as non-members and if they do they get better compensation.

Three quarters of union-organised workplaces in an LRD survey had a procedure agreement on redundancy consultation, 80 per cent had agreed measures to avoid redundancy and almost three quarters had a redundancy pay scheme better than the statutory scheme.

Health and safety

Studies found there was a 50 per cent reduction in major injuries in workplaces where there were trade union safety reps and consultation. In trade unionised workplaces there was a 33 per cent improvement in health and safety.

Legal Compensation

Unions won over �321 million in legal compensation for their members who were victims of work-related illness and injury in 2000 - an average of more than �6,000 per case.

UNISON won �35 million for its members in personal injury cases alone in 2001 and many millions more in employment tribunal cases.

A majority of unions also offer legal help in non-work related cases, such as claiming social security benefits, representation in road traffic cases, free wills, and so on to members and their families.

Unions win or achieve settlements in 77 per cent of cases lodged with tribunals compared with 45 per cent of cases overall.

Training

Workers in unionised workplaces are more likely to receive job-related training than those in non-unionised workplaces.

Other membership benefits

Unions offer additional fringe membership benefits such as cheaper mortgages and insurance, holiday clubs, shopping discounts, credit cards, discounted car breakdown membership and so on.  For further information please use the link below to the UNISON website to learn more about these benefits.

http://www.unison.org.uk/benefits/index.asp