Unison 2027 Women's Conference will follow Supreme Court ruling

[IwantToRetire]

Transgender Members

Following the UK Supreme Court's decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v Scottish Ministers and the subsequent Certification Officer decision in Flaherty v UNISON the union has reviewed the eligibility
requirements for positions reserved for women.

Members are advised that eligibility for seats reserved for women under the Equality Act 2010 is determined by biological sex. For these purposes, "biological sex" means sex at birth and a reserved women's seat is open only to members who are biologically female. This clarification is intended to ensure that the union's election processes are conducted in accordance with current legal requirements and applicable union rules

From https://cf-store.eu-west-1.widencdn.net/unisondam/2/d/8/2d854c09-e97d-446f-ace4-0c4fdb07d179.pdf

However see also https://cf-store.eu-west-1.widencdn.net/unisondam/5/7/9/579b53b6-46c4-4391-91a4-e60f2bfb7625.pdf

If the pdf links dont work see https://unison.org.uk/events/2027-national-womens-conference

The first 2 links went nowhere!

The handmaiden in charge of the union must be grinding her teeth.😂

Thanks to Flaherty for taking them to court and making them play by their own rules. 🥳

Amazing!

I think he still needs gardening for his other case by the way.

And likely some noise too.

I bet they'll still resist the implementation of single sex facilities, though. ( arguably the occasions in which it most matters)

Glad to see this! It's a very positive move for Unison but as Short just said there will be diehard "activists" who will fight against SS facilities all the way.

As I said in the OP if the pdf links dont work go to the Unison page and click on the links there ..............

Former Unison convenor here. Don’t get too excited. Whilst the document refers to “reserved seats” ie elected union positions and “visitors” ie people who can attend conference and watch, not participate, I see no mention of the change being applied to delegates.

Agree - or I mean that's what I understood.

But part of me was so taken aback that a Union if accepted that the law had to be obeyed made me want to post.

So a small victory? They accept that if looking for nominations for a post reserved for women - it has to be a biological woman!

There's a comment on the (obligatory) UK Trans Reddit along the lines of "why don't they just change the name of the reserved place from "for women" to "for women and trans people".