Ruth Kelly backs Parents and Carers in Britain’s booming retail sector

Education and Skills Secretary, Ruth Kelly, has revealed plans for extended school hours which will help members of the retail union Usdaw balance their work/life commitments.

Speaking to 1500 delegates at the union’s annual conference she outlined Labour's plans for extended schools opening hours from 8am until 6pm offering a variety of activities for children up to 14.

Usdaw members are campaigning for flexible working in Britian’s retail sector and welcomed this new proposal to offer high quality childcare in a safe environment when it’s actually needed.

“Our childcare revolution is critical to achieving our goal of halving child poverty in ten years and ending it within a generation,” Ruth Kelly told the conference. “We’re proud to be consulting on extending the right to flexible working for parents of older children and carers for elderly and sick relatives.”

Usdaw members have used their national parents and carers campaign to provide more information on basic rights in the workplace and Ruth Kelly promised to create Parents Direct, which she billed ‘as a kind of NHS Direct for parents’.

The Education and Skills Secretary also paid tribute to Usdaw’s pioneering work in creating workplace based Lifelong Learning projects that have boosted basic skills for more than 10,000 union members.

“Since 1998 over £50 million has been made available to support the Union Learning Fund,” Ruth Kelly said. “This money has supported over 490 projects in more than 3,000 workplaces and the fund has harnessed the energy of Usdaw members in our collective endeavour to get people into work and help them get on at work.”

Usdaw’s Lifelong Learning project teams have been some of the most successful in developing partnerships between employers and workers to provide high quality courses from basic skills to nationally recognised IT courses.

“Lifelong Learning is something we are immensely proud of and we’re pleased the Education Secretary acknowledged that hard work,” said Usdaw General Secretary John Hannett. “Contrast that support with the Tories who have promised to scrap the Union Learning Fund which would deprive our members of these vital learning opportunities in their workplace.”

“Many of our members were disadvantaged by the education system when Michael Howard was last in government and now he plans to fail them again if elected.”

Notes to Editors:

• Contacts for newsdesks: Usdaw’s Media Officer, Paul Clarke, can be contacted on 0161 224 2804 or at paul.clarke@usdaw.org.uk.

• Usdaw (the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK’s fifth biggest trade union, with over 340,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.

• More information and news releases are available at our online Newsroom.

• Journalists can subscribe to receive Usdaw news releases via our online e-news service.

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