Memorandum submitted by the TUC
The TUC produced a comprehensive submission
to the Women and Work Commission's call for evidence in January
2005, which we attach here for information (not printed here).
The TUC was disappointed that the Commission did not recommend
introducing mandatory pay reviews but welcomed the recommendations
when they were published in February 2006.
The TUC is of the view that if all the recommendations
were funded and implemented properly, real equality between women
and men could be achieved and significant steps could be taken
to address occupational gender segregation.
Following the publication of the Women and Work
Commission's recommendations the Chancellor used the 2006 Budget
to announce substantial funding targeting women and the Government
produced its Action Plan in response to the Commission's recommendations
in September 2006.
The TUC has subsequently taken a number of steps
to assist with the implementation of the particular recommendations
of the Women and Work Commission that are set out here.
EQUALITY REPS
The TUC has long called for statutory recognition
for union equality representatives, in order to assist employers
with promoting diversity and tackling discrimination in the workplace.
As a step towards this, we welcomed the Government's decision
to provide support for a capacity building exercise via the Union
Modernisation Fund in the first instance. The Trade and Industry
Select Committee will be aware that the Women and Work Commission
recommended that "a cross-government UK-wide package of measures
should support awareness raising and capacity building" and
that equality should be promoted through supporting employee involvement
"via [a] £5 million additional funding for the Union
Modernisation Fund for capacity building to support training and
development for equality reps in the private and public sector".[39]
In the event the Government agreed that Equality Representatives
could be a "priority theme" for the second round of
the Union Modernisation Fund (UMF) rather than being given additional
funding. The TUC was disappointed that the funding was not ring-fenced,
particularly as it is then unclear what the actual sum specifically
for equality reps is likely to be.
Unions are currently submitting bids to the
UMF for funding for equality reps capacity building. The TUC will
be submitting a bid to the UMF for a project-coordinator and this
post will provide assistance to affiliated unions to ensure that
funding for equality reps capacity building covers a comprehensive
range of sectors, sizes of union and strands (eg gender equality,
age discrimination and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
equality). The co-ordinator will also help unions to develop the
role of the equality reps and will evaluate their success, drawing
up a comprehensive report for the DTI and the WWC.
EQUALITY CHECK
Alongside funding for capacity building for
equality reps, the Women and Work Commission also recommended
that the Government provide support for the development and marketing
of equality checks. This would be a tool that employers could
use to asses the risk of discrimination and/or unequal treatment
across the causes of the gender pay gap ie unequal pay, sex discrimination,
occupational segregation and the impact of family responsibilities.
[40]The
Government accepted this recommendation and has now established
a steering group to oversee the implementation of what is now
being referred to as the "Gender Equality Indicator".
UK WIDE QUALITY
PART-TIME
WORK CHANGE
INITIATIVE
The Committee will be aware that women are far
more likely than men to need to work part time at some point in
their lives and most often when they have young children. The
lack of part time work across a range of sectors and grades means
that many women are forced to work in low paid, poorly valued
jobs when they work part time, which has a significant impact
on their lifetime working patterns and earnings. [41]Furthermore,
this trend in women's employment has led the Equal Opportunities
Commission to find that 53% of women who work part time are employed
below their potential. [42]The
TUC is of the view that this is an extremely serious issue and
one that must be dealt with head-on through a number of avenues.
The TUC was therefore disappointed that the Government only agreed
to £500k funding to meet the Women and Work Commission's
recommendation that the DTI set up a "UK-wide quality part-time
work change initiative of £5 million to support new initiatives
aimed at achieving culture change, so that more senior jobs are
open to part-time and flexible working." [43]The
TUC is in the process of setting up discussions with the CBI on
how to take this recommendation forward.
SKILLS
The Women and Work Commission made a number
of recommendations for piloting skills training for women. In
his 2006 Budget, the Chancellor announced substantial funding
for skills training specifically aimed at women who were currently
out of the labour market, or who had low-skills and were in poorly
paid part time work and black and minority ethnic women. The TUC
welcomed the Chancellor's impressive response to the Commission's
recommendations and since then the TUC has:
— Taken up a place (along with
the Southern and Eastern Region TUC) on the Skills Alliance Delivery
Group for the London 2012 Olympic Games, which aims to ensure
that tackling gender segregation in jobs is part of plans for
tackling skills shortages in relevant sectors.
— Been represented on the Women
and Work Sector Pathways project group established by the DfES
to oversee the spending of £5 million announced in the 2006
Budget which aims to provide the Sector Skills Development Agency
with funding to support those Sector Skills Councils that face
particular challenges in recruiting or retaining women in their
sectors. The TUC has been facilitating trade union involvement
in this project and has also been overseeing applications for
funding from Sector Skills Councils in two rounds of bids for
funding. These have now been dealt with and the TUC now sits on
the Steering Group overseeing the implementation of these projects.
The Women and Work Commission also recommended
that funding should be targeted at employers and sectors with
high numbers of low paid women, especially black and minority
ethnic women. In the 2006 Budget, the Chancellor announced £10
million a year for two years to fund a Level 3 skills "Train
to Gain" pilot which would focus on women who are low skilled,
are part time workers and black and minority ethnic. The TUC is
currently in discussions with the DfES regarding the development
of this work and will co-ordinate trade union involvement where
appropriate.
January 2007
39 Recommendation 30, Shaping a Fairer Future
pp xiv-xv. Back
40
Recommendation 30, Shaping a Fairer Future p xv and p 84. Back
41
More information can be found in The Part Time Pay Penalty
A Manning and B Petronogolo, London School of Economics, November
2004. Back
42
Working below potential: women and part time work L Grant,
S Yeandle, L Buckner, Equal Opportunities Commission, September
2005. Back
43
Recommendation 11, Shaping a Fairer Future, p xi. Back
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