Roles for reps

Supporting individual members

Workplace reps take their responsibility to represent their members seriously. Members will come to you for advice or representation on issues affecting them in the workplace. A member may have had a flexible working request declined and be unhappy with the justification for this, or they may be unsure how to approach their line manager to initiate a flexible working request. You may be approached by a member who works part-time and cannot access workplace training opportunities because they take place at times outside her normal shifts. A member may be unsure what employer contact and support to expect when she goes on maternity leave, or may be experiencing unfair treatment after telling her employer she is pregnant. You may have to represent a member who has made a complaint of sexual harassment by a colleague or manager, or you may support a member who wishes to take an equal pay case against their employer.

Your union should offer you support and/or training to ensure you are able to adequately represent your members on all of these issues. The support you provide to members through individual cases is invaluable, not just to the member, but also as a means of raising these issues with employers so they can be addressed across the workplace as a whole.

Working with employers

As a workplace rep you are likely to be in touch with your members and the issues in your workplace. Regular meetings with your employer can provide the ideal forum to raise and negotiate on those issues affecting women.

It is good practice to gather external and internal information to inform which issues you wish to prioritise. You may identify issues through member contact, or through your caseload as a rep. You may work with your employer to examine workforce data to identify wider workplace trends or areas of occupational segregation. Your union equalities or women’s committee may have identified wider priorities which you can address in your own workplace.

It is vital that trade unions ensure their commitment to addressing women’s labour market inequality is reflected in workplace reps’ bargaining strategies.

Resources for reps

The most effective way for an organisation to uncover unequal pay and put it right is to carry out an equal pay review. These are sometimes called equal pay audits.

Close the Gap recommends to employers that trade unions be involved in any steering group overseeing a pay review. You can find more information on the equal pay review process in the section Equal pay review. We have also produced a brief for unions reps on the role of a rep in conducting an equal pay review.

The public sector equality duty is a positive duty which requires public bodies to play a role in tackling entrenched and widespread gender inequality. Our toolkit on the public sector equality duty for trade union reps is designed to give trade union reps an understanding of the duty itself, what employers are obliged to do under the duty, and how reps can use the duty for the benefit of their members. You can download a copy here: Public Sector Equality Duty: a toolkit for trade union reps.

Within your union

Many trade unions also have organisational and structural issues which constrain women’s participation in the role of workplace representative, and in the wider trade union movement. Many are already working towards addressing these issues, as they recognise that women’s voices must be heard and represented at all levels if the union movement is to play its part in addressing women’s workplace inequality.

You can challenge issues affecting women's participation in your union through your branch and local and national committees structures, and by working with your union's women's or equalities committee.

Our report Shifting the Balance: Exploring trade union responses to tackling gendered occupational segregation outlines the causes of occupational segregation and the impact that it has on women in the labour market and in education and training. It also explores the work that unions have undertaken to engage on the issue, makes recommendations for unions to work towards achieving greater equality for women members in the workplace and suggests proposals for pilot work with Close the Gap.