Jane Jones – Usdaw President says: “The existing framework of statutory family and carer pay and leave rights is not working for most working parents and carers.  Far from protecting, supporting or empowering women at work it entrenches their marginalisation and discrimination. Women on low and/or fluctuating levels of pay, those with more than one job and those in insecure, temporary or self-employment are amongst those excluded from carer friendly employment rights.
 
“We welcome the Labour Party’s commitment to reviewing the parental leave system and ask that the review includes working carers as well as working parents. We are concerned that women’s caring and parental responsibilities and the effort required to make themselves available to do their jobs is frequently invisible to and/or ignored by employers and policy makers. This must change.
 
“With that in mind, the review should not only take into account the reality of today’s labour market but also the way in which caring commitments impact on women’s daily lives, decision making and financial circumstances. We also ask that the review’s overarching aims should be to deliver a simpler, more equal system that provides stronger and more effective rights to care-friendly working that explicitly values all women workers, no matter what kind of job or contract they have.
 
“Reforming leave policies in this way better enables women to enter into, maintain and progress in employment; make real and meaningful choices about balancing work and care, and recognises the societal and economic value of women’s paid and unpaid work.”
 
Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with over 350,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades www.usdaw.org.uk
 
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion