Tracy Gilbert – Usdaw’s Regional Secretary for Scotland said: “Women’s health is an equality and a workplace issue. Systemic gender inequality has far reaching and profoundly damaging consequences for women’s and girls’ well-being, physical and mental. Women in Scotland and across the world are more likely to live in poverty, ‘go without’ when household budgets are stretched, be in low earning insecure part-time employment, in underpaid undervalued occupations and provide the majority of unpaid primary care for children and adults.
“In the workplace, less attention has been paid to women’s health and safety needs as the focus has been on men’s work and men’s bodies. Because of this, research and developments in health and safety laws and PPE have overlooked the risks women’s jobs pose to their health and safety. This gender insensitive approach limits and shortens women’s lives, ambitions and opportunities.”
Usdaw is calling on the STUC to support and promote the work unions are doing to raise awareness of the specific risks posed to women’s health by gender stereotyping and a lack of gender sensitive risk assessments, which leads to women’s occupational injuries and illness being overlooked and ignored.
Tracy continued: “High quality, accessible and affordable early years childcare is an investment in essential social infrastructure with long term benefits for the economy, society and women’s equality. It also tackles child poverty, supports children’s development, removes barriers to employment and creates more well-paid jobs in the childcare sector. Lack of childcare is a barrier to women’s labour market participation and progression and contributes to the gender pay gap.
“Over half of working parents on lower incomes have had to reduce their working hours to manage childcare needs. The majority of families rely on grandparents for help with childcare and we recognise the critical role they play in enabling parents to work.
“The Scottish Government must deliver a fully funded, comprehensive childcare system which is easily understood by and supports working parents. This strategy needs to be developed in partnership with unions. It is not enough to extend free hours entitlements which many parents are unable to access and many providers cannot afford to offer. We must ensure flexibility of care provision features strongly in any new services to address the needs of shift workers and those working irregular and unsocial hours, along with all workers in precarious employment.”
Usdaw is calling of a new childcare settlement should be framed around:
- Free breakfast club and after-school provision in every primary school.
- 30 hours funded childcare per week from the end of parental leave.
- Funded school holiday provisions.
- Funding for the free hours hourly rate should reflect the true cost of care provision.
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
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