Network Journal 2006 Issue 1 March

Members are the winners with caring campaign

The Supporting Parents and Carers campaign improved rights at work for thousands of our members and led to significant changes in the law, writes equalities officer Ruth Cross.

The campaign tapped into some of the most important issues facing our members who are busy juggling work with family life.

Improving rights through negotiation

After listening to members we decided to focus our energies on improving rights in the following areas: Maternity leave and pay, paternity leave and pay, provision for time off for family emergencies, childcare support and flexible working.

We have made real progress in terms of negotiating improvements to our agreements.

Our biggest successes were around paternity and maternity leave and pay, with over a quarter of our negotiating wins relating to paternity pay and a fifth relating to maternity pay.

In some instances we've negotiated two weeks paternity leave on full pay for fathers - making taking paternity leave, for the first time since its introduction, a real option for our members.

Flexible working has been another area where we've pushed back the boundaries. We've negotiated a range of flexible working arrangements with employers, including term time working, carers shifts and help for parents of school age children.

Political gains

We've put the case to Government for better family friendly rights at work and Labour has listened. More improvements are on the way in April 2007 including:

• Extending paid maternity leave to 9 months from April 2007, increasing to one year from April 2009, with either mums or dads being able to take the leave after the first six months.
• Extending the right to request flexible working to carers of sick and disabled adults.
• Increasing childcare places and extension of the Sure Start scheme to all parts of the country.
• Extending the respite care available for carers of elderly and disabled people.

Lots of work was done throughout 2005 by officers, reps and activists but the hard work continues! Usdaw will continue to push Parents and Carers issues.

Don't forget, we will be holding a national parents and carers spotlight day on Tuesday June 13, 2006.

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