The alliance seeks to build on the Government’s employment reforms that strengthen protection against dismissal for pregnant women and new mothers, which will be delivered through the Employment Rights Bill that is currently at committee stage in the House of Lords. The alliance calls for further reforms to take account of:
• The need to close the gender pay gap.
• The different forms that families take, e.g. single parents, kinship carers, same-sex parents.
• The sole, or highest, breadwinner in a family may be the mother.
• The evidence that fathers and co-parents want a bigger role in parenting.
• The women impacted by the motherhood penalty may be further disadvantaged by intersectional inequalities.
The alliance calls for a new, holistic system of maternity and parental rights, to help support modern families by:
• Increasing levels of, and improving access to, maternity and parental pay.
• Making flexible working work for everyone.
• Enabling more equal parenting by reforming maternity and parental leave.
Paddy Lillis - Usdaw general secretary says: “The new Labour Government is delivering for workers, and the Employment Rights Bill provides significant progress of making work more secure and better paid, which is crucial for working parents - particularly mums. An end to zero-hours contracts, the right to a regular-hours contract, better flexible working arrangements, improved sick pay, workplace equality reps and greater maternity protections will all make a real difference. These are issues Usdaw has long campaigned for, which the Tories refused to act on and are now being delivered by Labour in Government.
“We are pleased to be part of the Maternity Alliance, which acknowledges the gains we are making with Labour and looks to future improvements for working parents. Strong employment and equality rights during pregnancy and maternity leave are absolutely necessary; pregnant workers still face discrimination and unfair treatment at work. Women in unorganised workplaces and migrant women face particular problems and are often too afraid or vulnerable to assert their rights.
“Trade unions and strong workplace organisation are crucial to defending and furthering women’s rights at work. One of the most effective ways to deliver better pay, decent work and fairness for women at work is for employers to recognise and work with trade unions. Usdaw will continue to negotiate a better deal with employers and campaign alongside like-minded organisations for further new legal rights.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest trade union with around 360,000 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
Maternity Action: https://maternityaction.org.uk/
The Alliance for Maternity Rights started in 2016 and includes: Usdaw, Maternity Action, TUC, Unite, FBU, UCU, NEU, Working Families, GMB, NASUWT, FDA, HCSA, Fawcett Society, Women’s Budget Group, MU, STUC, Yess, Unison, CSP and RMT https://maternityaction.org.uk/alliance-maternity-rights/
For Usdaw press releases visit: www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Bluesky @usdawunion.bsky.social and Twitter/X @UsdawUnion