by Annette Mansell-Green, Head of Employment Relations.
“The BDA Trade Union will seek to ensure fair and equal treatment of all members including fair representation and access to services and participation. We will seek to protect the rights of all members to be treated with dignity and respect regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. We will promote equality of opportunity for the dietetic profession and work to remove barriers to career progression.”
For generations, trade unions have been at the forefront of the fight for equal rights for all, and have been instrumental in securing a legislative framework that helps to protect all workers from discrimination.
Without trade unions, more people would face inequality and unfair treatment in the workplace and wider society.
The BDA is committed to ensuring equal treatment of members in representation, collective bargaining, participation in our own structures, at work and in the community. There have been many advances towards achieving fairer treatment and protection for workers in recent years but we must be vigilant as there are now threats to these hard-won rights as a result of Brexit and Government policy.
The BDA trade union will be working hard to ensure that we are part of the wider trade union agenda to protect and improve equal rights for all.
We work with sister unions through the TUC equality structures to ensure that our current rights are protected, enforced and enhanced. We have raised issues such as the negative impact on women and children of universal credit, rights for women who are breast feeding, equal pay, LGBT+ rights and the recent rise of race discrimination.
So, without trade unions we would not have paid maternity leave, paternity and adoption leave, flexible working, protection from all forms of discrimination and a host of other protections that we now all take for granted.
There is still a long way to go to ensure that we have equal pay, equal treatment and the elimination of institutional racism and sexism but the trade union movement will never give up. The BDA will never give up!
If you are interested in becoming more involved as a local TU representative or Equalities representative then please do get in touch with our TU team for a chat.
