BRITAIN’S largest union started a three-day series of equality-promoting conferences yesterday with loud plaudits for a recent women-led victory against zero-hours contracts.

Unite’s equalities conferences began with a focus on the plight of the nation’s women, with issues such as equal pay, their role in politics and violence carried out against them taking centre stage.

But no speech raised more emotion than London’s Greenwich Unite assistant branch secretary Sara Kasab on her members’ struggle against their employer Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL).