Business, Innovation and Skills CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by The Royal College of Midwives

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) is the trade union and professional organisation that represents the vast majority of practising midwives in the UK. It is the only such organisation run by midwives for midwives. The RCM is the voice of midwifery, providing excellence in representation, professional leadership, education and influence for and on behalf of midwives. We actively support and campaign for improvements to maternity services and provide professional leadership for one of the most established clinical disciplines.

General Comments

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee’s consultation into Women in the Workplace.

We are slightly disappointed, however, that out of the nine topics the committee will consider concern five of those topics concern the numbers of women in more senior positions and serving on boards. While it is important to consider the equality of company boards the reality is that serving on a board is the experience of a minority of both women and men in the workplace. We are concerned that the committee’s discussions will be dominated by this issue and will not focus their attention on the experiences of the majority of women in the workplace.

The RCM believes that the Committee should focus their attention on the impact of the economic climate and the Government’s policies on women and employment. We are particularly concerned about a number of the Government’s policies having a detrimental impact on women’s employment. The Government has stated its intention to reduce employment rights and protections which will have a negative impact on all employees and it has also made clear its intention to reduce levels of public sector employment and public sector pay, pensions and terms and conditions which will have a negative impact on all employees but particularly women as a disproportionate number work in the public sector.

The RCM is the trade union and professional body that represents the vast majority of practicing midwives in the UK. In September 2011 there were 25,316 midwives employed by the NHS in England and 99.6% were women.1 According to a parliamentary answer2 in 2010 57.2% of midwives worked part time and this has been increasing over the past 10 years.

Currently, the Government’s policies are having a detrimental impact on midwives. For the past two years NHS pay has been frozen which has resulted in a real decrease in the value of pay given the high rates of inflation. The Government has announced that there will be a pay cap of 1% for the next two years. Given the high numbers of women working in the public sector, particularly in midwifery, the Government’s policy has a disproportionate affect on women.

Furthermore, the Government has asked the NHS Pay Review Bodies to investigate moving the NHS away from nationally negotiated pay to market facing regional pay. The RCM has responded to the consultation arguing that the current pay structure in the NHS, called Agenda for Change, has been equality proofed.

The Kings Fund wrote a report in 2007 and they concluded that “Achieving equal pay for jobs of equal value was one of the key objectives of Agenda for Change. The trust managers were generally supportive of the more standardised working hours and job evaluation based pay as providing a more transparent and fairer pay system.” In 2009 the Hartley Judgement also confirmed Agenda for Change is an equal pay proofed system. Therefore, we are very concerned that moves to regional pay could fragment the pay structure and could open the NHS up to equal pay issues.

Currently there are twenty trusts in the South West that have joined together to break away from the national agreement to attempt to form their own regional terms and conditions, the RCM is opposed to this. We are concerned that the move to regional terms and conditions will give rise to equal pay challenges.

Moreover, the Government’s cuts to NHS services are affecting midwives as they are facing demotion to a lower banded role with less pay and less responsibility. They are also frequently having to work in excess of their contracted hours to complete their caseload.

We are also alarmed that the Government has run two consultations investigating repealing parts of the Equality Act that give protections in employment. They have consulted on removing employment tribunals power to make wider recommendations in discrimination cases and the procedure for obtaining information and they have consulted on the employers liability for harassment of employees by third parties.

Moreover, we are concerned by the Government’s proposals to reduce the maternity leave period to increase the parental leave period which has serious implications for women in the workplace due to the various protections given by maternity leave that are not given by parental leave. We are also worried that women will be pressured back to work early which could have health implications and drive down breastfeeding rates.

Summary and Conclusion

The RCM is pleased to have had the opportunity to raise these issues with the committee. While we are pleased the committee is conducting this inquiry we would rather that the focus of the inquiry is on the employment situation of the majority of women and how the Government’s policies on public sector employment and employment rights and protections are having a detrimental impact on all employees and especially women.

5 October 2012