Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Should a civil-service union promote harassment and discrimination? - Sex Maters

39 replies

IwantToRetire · 26/05/2023 19:53

Have only just seen this:

At its annual conference starting on Tuesday 23rd May, PCS – Public and Commercial Services Union, the largest civil-service union – is planning to debate motions that denigrate gender-critical civil servants and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The motions seek to commit the union to a political stance about legalising gender self-ID, and to slip gender identities into government policy via a data system for civil-service HR data. Meanwhile, as the media have already reported, there is a motion calling for BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Sadism and Masochism) training for civil servants.

https://sex-matters.org/posts/freedom-of-speech/should-a-civil-service-union-promote-harassment-and-discrimination/

I'm assuming they are talking about this:

• UK Law does not contain the concept of “Sex
based Rights” but operates from a standpoint of
equal rights
• The Equality Act 2010 lays out very clear rights to
exclude people with the protected characteristic
of Gender Reassignment where it is a proportional
means to achieving a legitimate aim, and that these
provisions are an exception, not the rule, to be
applied on a case-by-case basis.
This conference believes:
• Biological reductionism is harmful to all women
and forms the basis of many patriarchal notions of
biology as destiny.
• The suffragettes fought for equal rights, and against
the sex-based rights of men, and this is the basis of
modern progressive feminism.
• Sex is not binary and to say so excludes people with
differences of sexual development amongst others.
This conference further believes:
• The SEEN promotes a regressive ideology which
seeks to be exclusionary and is detrimental to the
rights of all women.
• The stated aims of SEEN will promote division and
exclusion in the workplace, and could create an
unfounded atmosphere of fear towards people with
the protected characteristic of gender reassignment
This conference calls on the NEC:
• To express our concerns to the Cabinet Office
regarding its support for the establishment of the
SEEN
• To produce and circulate a branch bulletin
confirming the legal position that the protected
characteristic of sex includes legal sex, and the
proper application of the provisions of the Equality
Act 2010 regarding the exclusion of people with the
protected characteristic of Gender Reassignment
according to the EHRC statutory guidance
• To produce and circulate a members’ bulletin
reaffirming PCS support for Trans inclusion in
the workplace, the understanding that Trans
rights and women’s rights are not in opposition,
our commitment to the Public Sector Duty, and
opposition to exclusionary ideologies that reduce
the complexities and reality of our identity and lived
experiences to the biological characteristics of sex
alone.

A43
Covers E176, E177, E178
DWP Bradford (047002)
HMRC Glasgow (200119)
https://sex-matters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/PCS-MOTIONS-BOOK.pdf

Does anyone know what happened?

OP posts:
IwantToRetire · 27/05/2023 16:55

I was at the conference- the motion wasn't debated as the time was used up on motions placed higher up the agenda.
The BDSM motion was placed dead last and had no chance of being debated- it was withdrawn anyway following a request from the NEC.

Thanks for that info.

That's good to know (and that BDSM was placed last - gross) but there is a part of me that would have liked to know the response of those attending.

Maybe this is an indication of what might happen with labour. Lots of showy statements, but when it comes to it more immediate pressing needs are put first.

And there certainly are a lot of those in addition to women having their rights threatened.

OP posts:
IwantToRetire · 27/05/2023 16:57

Are there any unions to join for civil servants who know sex is binary and support women’s rights?

Not involved but maybe this - SEEN - https://twitter.com/SexMattersOrg/status/1590679673578479617?lang=en

OP posts:
Nat6999 · 27/05/2023 17:51

I was a PCS member & they were excellent supporting me when I was raped by exh, going through my divorce, when I had to go off long term sick afterwards & work were finishing me.

FigRollsAlly · 27/05/2023 18:00

ArabeIIaScott · 27/05/2023 16:41

Thanks. Can anyone identify as a firefighter?

😄 also how could I forget Ruth Serwotka of Woman’s Place who is a trade unionist and married to Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of PCS. Shame she doesn’t seem to have persuaded him to fight our corner.

BlackForestCake · 27/05/2023 20:14

Trade union leaders aren’t dictators. Mark Serwotka doesn't control every daft motion that is brought to conference.

Mark Serwotka is fighting our corner – here is an article he wrote in 2020:
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/drive-expel-feminists-labour-creating-hostile-environment-women

“These pledges add to a toxic atmosphere of intolerance that is creating a hostile environment for feminists. …

Sadly, the pledges on trans rights supported by some of the Labour leadership contenders have weaponised solidarity with trans people and targeted feminist groups. This is the antithesis of the socialist tradition of solidarity and of respecting different viewpoints within our movement.…

It should go without saying that there is still a need for a strong feminist movement.…

If the new leader of the Labour Party attempts to expel feminist women from the party, my pledge is that I will be first to volunteer in any campaign to defend them.”

Tallisker · 27/05/2023 20:21

Hmmm, the PCS seems very anti-SEEN though, in spite of him.

Tallisker · 27/05/2023 20:22

And if the FBU are staunch feminists, how come Lucy Masoud had so many problems? Facilities made mixed sex including showers and loos?

FigRollsAlly · 27/05/2023 21:15

Tallisker · 27/05/2023 20:22

And if the FBU are staunch feminists, how come Lucy Masoud had so many problems? Facilities made mixed sex including showers and loos?

Good question. It was Paul Embery’s spat with Jo Grady that made me Google him recently and one of the results was Pink News slating him for “transphobic remarks” in relation to proposed legal reforms. Reading further, his union disassociated itself from his remarks but I guess him being gc doesn’t necessarily mean being a staunch feminist (maybe he is, I don’t know).

DrBlackbird · 27/05/2023 21:34

@notsurewherenotsurewhy have you got any links to Twitter where the UCU-land of performative political posturing all over twitter whilst Rome burns? I’m curious but not on the twittershere.

BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn · 28/05/2023 09:43

IwantToRetire · 27/05/2023 16:57

Are there any unions to join for civil servants who know sex is binary and support women’s rights?

Not involved but maybe this - SEEN - https://twitter.com/SexMattersOrg/status/1590679673578479617?lang=en

SEEN is a staff network rather than a union - a useful thing, but with different legal standing.

dcbc1234 · 28/05/2023 15:26

BettyFilous · 26/05/2023 20:27

Jeez. I would consider being required to sit through BDSM training in work as creating a hostile work environment and a form of sexual harrassment. I have zero interest learning about how other people enjoy hurting each other. I go out of my way to avoid that kind of content. I find violence upsetting. People can do whatever they want in private, provided they stay within the law (I thinking of those DIY home eunuch sugery guys in the courts recently). It should have no place in the working environment. What the fuck are these people thinking?

They give the game away with this 'BDSM' motion rather don't they? So emboldened wanting to bring sexual perversion into all aspects of life, even nursery schools.
The founders of the British Trade Unions must be turning in their graves.

Shelefttheweb · 28/05/2023 20:54

Can’t you just imagine supporting BDSM in the workplace - whipping your subordinates, maybe a bit of spanking when they have failed to complete a report. Handcuffing them to the desk….

JanesLittleGirl · 28/05/2023 22:01

Shelefttheweb · 28/05/2023 20:54

Can’t you just imagine supporting BDSM in the workplace - whipping your subordinates, maybe a bit of spanking when they have failed to complete a report. Handcuffing them to the desk….

Do not do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Their tastes may be different.

IwantToRetire · 28/05/2023 22:08

SEEN is a staff network rather than a union - a useful thing, but with different legal standing.

Thanks for the clarification.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread