Reports

- report by Janine Booth, RMT nominee on the Committee

Flexible working and reasonable adjustments

The TUC has been advocating what it calls ‘flexible working as a reasonable adjustment’ for disabled workers. What it means by this is the right of disabled workers to work from home or another location, with hours that suit our access needs.

This was the first full meeting of the committee elected in March. It elected Dave Allan as chair (a formality as he is the disabled workers’ representative on the TUC General Council); and Annie Galpin as co-chair.

Implementing Disabled Workers’ Conference decisions

Accessible Transport

I will be convening the committee’s accessible transport working group, which will also include Elane Heffernan (UCU), Colleen Johnson (NEU) and Austin Harney (PCS).

We already have a campaign plan, which will now be updated.

The Committee agreed to support RMT DMAC’s day of action against London Overground ticket office cuts on 1 November.

The Rail Tram and Bus (RTB) Union’s Victoria branch has around eight thousand members, three quarters of whom work on the V Line (state-wide railway), Yarra Trams or Metro Trains Melbourne. On 22 August, I visited the union's office.

UNITY IS STRENGTH

Disabled Workers’ Conference decisions

We considered how to best carry out the decisions of the TUC Disabled Workers’ Conference. We agreed that the most effective way to do this was by establishing working groups on various policy areas. Committee members volunteered to convene groups, and a circular will be sent out asking other Committee members to volunteer to join these groups.

Today, I was a panellist at at evidence session organised by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Autism, discussing autism and employment. There were several ‘witnesses’, mostly employers and representatives of charities. Some were autistic, some not.

Published in Solidarity 468

Disabled transport workers discussed issues from workplace representation to the role of charities at their two-day RMT conference in Southend on 26-27 April.

1. TUC Disabled Workers' Conference, 24-25 May, Bournemouth

• Motions - The Committee agreed to to support all motions and amendments, except:
  • Unison's amendment to Unite's motion on Universal Credit (oppose) - the motion opposes UC; the amendment wants to change this to reforming it
  • POA's motion on mental health discrimination (oppose) - the Committee can not support the Time To Change campaign, as it is run by Mind, which collaborates with the DWP
  • Community's motion on sustainable supported employment (decision deferred) - the motion proposes promoting a particular company as 'best practice' for the employment of disabled people - we need more information before endorsing this

TUC DISABLED WORKERS’ CONFERENCE 2018

Venue accessibility: We noted our success in getting the TUC to change the conference location to an accessible venue. We looked at the detailed access statement for the venue, and I asked that a relaxation space be allocated for the use of conference attendees.

The fourth meeting of RMT's Disabled Members' Advisory Committee was the best-attended yet. The Committee continues to grow in size, and all members attended the meeting and contributed to our lively discussions.