Record of Decisions
WOMEN MEMBERS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
2007
RESOLUTION 1 - FACILITIES
This Women’s Annual General Meeting notes that many facilities on fire stations fall way below the National Women’s Committee minimum facilities policy document. This is no longer acceptable! What the women’s committee are demanding is that the Executive Council raise this issue at the highest possible governmental level. This is to include all existing stations and new builds. The changes need to include all Fire Services and ensure that they up grade by 2010. Full consultation with women and Brigade reps in the up grading would be an absolute necessity.
The Executive Council to report its progress within 6 months of the Women’s AGM.
REGION 3
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 2 - FIRE GROUND FACILITIES
This Women’s Annual General Meeting is disappointed by the disgraceful standard of facilities on the fire ground available to women in the UK Fire and Rescue Service. These often include no toilet facilities, no sanitary provision and no means for sanitary disposal.
We call upon the Executive Council of the Fire Brigades Union to formulate a “best practice policy on fire ground facilities.” The policy must cater for all Fire Service Personnel regardless of sex/gender, comply with existing guidelines and legislation and pay particular attention to the dangers of toxic shock syndrome. We further demand that upon completion of the policy that the Executive Council put pressure on the employer’s representatives at the National Joint Council to adopt the policy as a basic standard and a human right to dignity when on the fire ground.
We further call upon the Executive Council to report back progress of this issue to the National Womens Committee within 6 months of this AGM.
REGION 13
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 3 - UNISEX FACILITIES
This Women’s Annual General Meeting is concerned by the growing development and use of unisex facilities in the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS). This AGM does not support the idea which is being pursued by some FRS diversity managers that the adoption of unisex facilities can challenge and change the culture of the FRS.
Women members inform us repeatedly of the need for privacy at work in regard to toilet, shower and changing facilities and as such this AGM opposes the use of unisex facilities in the workplace.
This AGM therefore instructs the Executive Council to enter into negotiations at the National Joint Council regarding this issue, with the aim of ensuring that our members do not suffer from a lack of privacy and dignity whilst at work.
REGION 5
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 4 - SANITARY PROVISION
This Women’s Section Annual General Meeting is frustrated at the lack of sanitary resources provided by Fire & Rescue Services (FRS) in the workplace. The AGM recognises that whilst some FRSs do provide some level of sanitary provision, many still fail to do so.
We demand that the Executive Council instruct Brigade Officials and Health & Safety Reps to raise this issue with management as a matter of urgency, with a view to proper provision being afforded in line with the following minimum requirements:
All progress to be reported back to the Women’s Section AGM 2008.
REGION 1
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 5 - RETURN TO WORK FOLLOWING MATERNITY LEAVE
This Women’s Annual General Meeting notes the continual progress being made by some Fire and Rescue Services/Brigades in updating their Maternity policies. However, this AGM is concerned that the issues around new mothers returning to work are not being fully addressed.
Issues such as mothers still breast feeding, risk assessments, phased return and return to work training are not being addressed fully to ensure our women members are given the help and support they need after a period of maternity leave.
This AGM therefore calls upon the Executive Council to instruct Brigade Officials, with the support of NWC Officials, to revisit their Fire and Rescue Service/Brigades maternity policy to ensure that return to work issues are addressed and implemented by management.
We further call upon the Executive Council to report the progress back to the Women’s AGM 2008.
REGION 9
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 6 - ENHANCED GREY BOOK MATERNITY CONDITIONS
The Women’s Annual General Meeting demands that the Grey Book Maternity conditions are enhanced. This is to include recent changes in law to maternity pay and leave but to enhance the existing conditions. The Grey Book is an absolute minimum and the Fire Service relies on this as best practice. The Women’s AGM are demanding that the Executive Council negotiate at the National Joint Council for better conditions which are laid out in the National Women’s Committees updated Maternity Policy. This would include nine months at full pay.
This to be negotiated by the Executive Council and brought to rule change conference 2008.
REGION 3
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 7 - MATERNITY PROVISION: PAY
Maternity provision has an important influence on the recruitment and retention of women Firefighters. We demand that the Fire Brigades Union nationally negotiate maternity pay that is an improvement on the statutory minimum. The minimum acceptable to be:
This would improve on what is currently in the Grey Book and would be an important factor in the retention of women at relatively low cost.
REGION 10
WITHDRAWN
RESOLUTION 8 - PPE
This Women’s Sections AGM is appalled that many Fire & Rescue Services (FRS) have adopted a one size fits all policy in regard to the provision of gas tight suits and dry suits.
Many women members are suffering by being forced to wear something that does not fit them properly, or by being excluded from fulfilling all of their operational roles because of ill fitting PPE. This failure to adequately provide suitable and sufficient personal protective clothing can also have a detrimental effect on the health, safety and welfare of female members.
This Women’s Section AGM demands that the Executive Council seeks to rectify this negative situation predominantly affecting our women members by raising this issue as a matter of urgency with the National Joint Council National Employers as well as any other relevant national forums.
The Executive Council to report back on this matter to the National Women’s Committee within 6 months of this AGM.
REGION 1
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 9 - POST NATAL DEPRESSION
This Women’s Annual General Meeting recognises that post natal depression affects women who are mothers and is triggered by childbirth. Presentation of the depression may be months or years later. Due to the complexity of its nature, symptoms can range from low mood, lack of energy, feelings of worthlessness, anxiety, reduced concentration, to thoughts about death or suicide. Women quite often don’t realise they have it and will feel overwhelmed by the new demands placed upon them as a mother and fitting back into the working environment.
Many brigades/fire and rescue services do not fully recognise or understand the traumatic affects that post natal depression can have on women. Inappropriate return to work medicals may miss current symptoms and fail to monitor potential symptoms in the future. Symptoms may spiral out of control if a woman’s condition is left undiagnosed and unsupported. Post natal depression is a serious illness and is diagnosed under the guidance of the doctor in order to provide the correct therapy, which may include the use of anti-depressant medication.
This AGM urges the Executive Council to put pressure on the employer’s representatives at the National Joint Council to adopt the use of confidential medicals for women who have returned to work following maternity leave, miscarriage, still birth and adoption. The confidential medical will be managed by the occupational health doctor and will take into account the specific assessment required in order to identify post natal depression. Confidential medicals should also provide a point of contact, regular support and information about post natal depression and will allow time off, for women who are suffering, to attend prescribed therapy. Any sick leave periods due to post natal depression should not be included in any normal monitoring in regard to pay purposes or disciplinary action.
We further call upon the Executive Council to report progress back to the Women’s AGM 2008
REGION 13
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 10 - EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT
This Women’s Section Annual General Meeting notes that all Fire and Rescue Services should be carrying out Equality Impact Assessments (EIA) in line with their legal duties under the recently promulgated Equality Act, which came into force in April 2007. This AGM is concerned that some FRSs in Scotland are not carrying out EIAs. This may well be the case in other FRSs in the United Kingdom.
This AGM instructs the Executive Council to raise this issue with the FRS National Employers as a matter of urgency, with a view of ensuring that all FRS Managements undertake to carry out these assessments.
The Executive Council to report back on this matter to the National Women’s Committee within 6 months of this AGM.
REGION 1
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 11 - ELECTIONS
This Women’s Annual General Meeting believes that accountability and democracy are at the heart of the Fire Brigades Union. In regard to the election of the Women Members Executive Council Member, National Chair and Secretary, this AGM is concerned that Rule 19 (3) (e) which enables Brigade Committees to nominate one woman member as a candidate for these positions, does not afford true democracy and accountability to women members. This Women’s AGM believes that the constituent group (Brigade Womens Committees), to whom the relevant official is subsequently accountable, should therefore be the nominating committee.
Therefore; this AGM instructs the Executive Council to formulate the required rule changes in order to address this issue. These rule changes to be presented to the next rule change Conference.
REGION 5
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 12 - REPRESENTATION
This Women’s Annual General Meeting believes that the decision of Annual Conference 2004 and 2005 which carried resolution 58 and the subsequent change to rule 25(3)(a) respectively, has proved detrimental to the Fire Brigades Union’s policy ‘All different All Equal’ (ADAE). This AGM is concerned that in cases of bullying, harassment and discrimination, where assistance is subsequently removed from a member following an ADAE investigation, that the FBU is representing members who do not have an arguable defence for bullying and harassing others. This AGM believes that this sends a negative message to the many women that are suffering at the hands of these bullies and will deter women members from making justifiable claims of harassment and bullying.
This AGM calls for the ADAE policy to revert to its original position of withdrawing representation from a member who is accused of discrimination, bullying and/or harassment until such time as an arguable defence is located by the relevant Regional Committee.
We therefore call upon the Executive Council to amend the ADAE policy document accordingly and to present the required rule changes at Annual conference 2009.
REGION 7
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 13 - TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN FOR THE SEX TRADE
This Women’s Annual General Meeting is disgusted that women as young as 16 are being trafficked from their home land, sold as sex slaves and forced into prostitution in Cambridgeshire and across the whole of the UK. Trafficking criminals make between £1,000 and £2,000 a day by exploiting victims. Trafficked women are usually forced to have sex with between 20 and 30 men per day.
We call upon the Executive Council and Brigade Committees to raise awareness of the issue of trafficking and raise the level of debate by urging members to lobby MP’s asking them to support the Anti-Slavery, Amnesty International, National Federation of Women Institutes and UNICEF UK’s campaign to:
REGION 9
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 14 - STOP FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
This Women’s Annual General Meeting is horrified to learn that a growing number of females in the UK are being forced to go through the barbaric ritual of female circumcision, widely known as female genital mutilation (FGM). Whilst here in the western world it is seen as child abuse it is seen as a right of passage for women in many parts of Africa. Although this is very much a hidden crime, there is evidence that it is being practiced in the immigrant communities here in the UK. Although figures are difficult to obtain, it is estimated that 130 million girls world wide have been circumcised and as many as 74,000 in the UK.
Amnesty International state that the practice is carried out usually on girls from the ages of birth to mid teens. FGM, which is the removal of part, or all, of the female genitalia results in excessive bleeding, infection, trauma and even death. Later on there will be difficulties in intercourse and childbirth. The practice is opposed by women’s groups in Africa and elsewhere as a violation of the right to physical and mental integrity. Opponents consider FGM a particularly violent form of controlling the status and sexuality of women.
This AGM believes that FGM is a violation of human rights that cannot be justified by any political, religious or cultural claim and we call upon the Executive Council to give its full backing to the Amnesty International campaign and any other campaign against this barbaric ritual.
We call upon the Executive Council to implement the following strategy within 12 months:
REGION 13
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 15 - ‘HONOUR KILLINGS’
This Women’s Annual General Meeting is horrified that ‘Honour’ killings area still taking place in Europe and around the world. ‘Honour’ killings of women can be defined as acts of murder by which a woman is killed for her actual or perceived immoral behaviour. This so called immoral behaviour may take the form of marital infidelity, refusing to submit to an arranged marriage, demanding divorce, flirting with or receiving phone calls from men, failing to serve a meal on time or ‘allowing’ herself to be raped.
This AGM believes that the FBU must do everything in our power to stop these acts of violence, and unite with other like organisations to support such women fleeing these said environments.
We therefore call upon the Executive Council to use its influence in all political arenas to fight the international campaign against all honour killings, and to encourage Brigade Committees to support any local or national campaigns for women seeking asylum who are fleeing these horrific environments.
REGION 9
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 16 – DIGNITY! PERIOD CAMPAIGN
This Women’s Annual General Meeting notes that there is a chronic shortage of sanitary products in Zimbabwe and only the rich can afford to purchase the limited number of tampons and sanitary towels that are available. Women are using old rags as towels or inserting newspapers into their vaginas instead of tampons. Schoolgirls are missing a week of school every month as they cannot attend when they are having their period.
The lack of sanitary products has led to an increase in vaginal infections, but the majority of women in Zimbabwe cannot afford the drugs or treatment to cure the infections.
This Women’s annual general meeting calls on the Executive Council to support the Dignity Period Campaign by
REGION 7
CARRIED
RESOLUTION 17 - ACTION ON RESOLUTIONS
This Annual General Meeting is concerned that those resolutions passed by the Women’s AGM’s in 2005 & 2006 and forwarded in line with Standing Order 23 for the AGM of Women’s Representatives, to the Executive Council, have not yet been actioned by the EC.
Therefore, we call upon the Executive Council to ensure that all resolutions passed at the Women’s AGM, including those outstanding, will be acted upon within twelve months and that interim quarterly progress reports will be made to the National Women’s Committees as a matter of urgency.
REGION 5
CARRIED
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