Changing Time News * Number 97 * 28 July 2008
Changing Times News is the TUC's fortnightly online bulletin on work-life balance issues. Visit the website at http://www.tuc.org.uk/changingtimes
Edited by Rory O'Neill of Hazards magazine. Comments to Jo Morris. To unsubscribe or subscribe to this bulletin, click here. Past issues are available
CONTENTS
Union news: TUC training boost for equality reps * Usdaw backs call for a Community Day * Golden toilet bid to flush out breaks pay * Action needed on hours at sea * Usdaw delivers carers' petition to No.10
Other news: Power to demand fairness 'crucial' * Euro court gives more rights to carers * Equality watchdog gets it wrong on rights * Plan to extend paternity leave rights * Parental leave call to tackle youth crime * Welfare reform proposals criticised * News in brief
Resources: Global union precarious work campaign * Gender equality in journalism
International news: Australia: Union warning on work/care collision * Europe: Social partners call for childcare * New Zealand: Flexible working rights take effect * USA: Women educated better, paid worse * Global round-up
UNION NEWS
TUC training boost for equality reps
TUC is pressing ahead with plans to create more and better trained equality reps. A new training programme, to run between September and December at venues across the UK and funded by the Government Equalities Office, will train new and potential equality reps on how to handle key workplace issues, such as flexible working, equal pay, bullying, harassment and discrimination. The TUC says it is aiming to train up to 400 equality reps in the first three months of the project. The expansion of equality reps was a key recommendation of the government-convened Women and Work Commission. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Workforces dominated by white able-bodied males are increasingly becoming a relic of the past so diversity today is as much a business need as a social goal. But many employers could do with the help of more equality reps to help change workplace culture.' The TUC leader added: 'From help with flexible working requests, to tackling discrimination and harassment, equality reps are playing a vital role in delivering equality where it matters most - on the shop floor. We want as many reps as possible to sign up for our equality rep training courses and together we will help to create a better workplace environment for all workers.' The course will run in London, Norwich, Southampton, Nottingham, Solihull, Bradford, Hull, Rotherham, Bristol, Taunton, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Warrington.
TUC news release, training announcement and TUC Training for Equality Reps flier [pdf].
Usdaw backs call for a Community Day
Shopworkers' union Usdaw is joining the campaign for a national Community Day, by calling for an extra bank holiday with a special focus on celebrating and promoting voluntary community activity. The Community Day initiative, which is a joint venture from the TUC and four of the UK's largest voluntary organisations, is proposing a bank holiday that would fall during the October half term. Currently England, Scotland and Wales all have eight public holidays per year, whilst Northern Ireland has ten. John Hannett, Usdaw general secretary, said: 'Most of us spend a large part of our waking lives at work. It can be easy to forget that we are part of a wider community or to find the time to make our contribution. We want to redress that balance between our members' working lives and the rest of their lives.' He added: 'Great Britain currently has fewer holidays than the average for EU member states, with no public holidays at all in the long dark weeks between August and Christmas. That's why we believe a Community Day in October would be a great benefit to our members.'
Usdaw news release. Community Day website.
Sign up to the Community Day campaign!
Golden toilet bid to flush out breaks pay
An MP is backing a union campaign for paid toilet breaks at a Scottish meat firm supplying the supermarket chain Tesco. Workers at Brown Brothers in Kirkconnel are forced to take unpaid lavatory breaks - a policy that has been condemned by Labour MP Russell Brown and the union Unite as unacceptable. In a bid to embarrass the company and urge it to abandon this 'draconian' policy, Unite tried to present the firm with a golden toilet. Union members held a 27 June demonstration and paraded the lavatory outside the factory. MP Russell Brown said: 'Workers at Brown Brothers are effectively having their pay stopped for going to the toilet, which is a completely undignified and unacceptable way of treating staff in 2008.' Unite also gave supermarket giant Tesco a golden toilet and urged the supermarket giant to press the firm into ending 'one of Britain's worst toilet policies'. Staff are expected to provide medical evidence in order to be excused from the system. Unite says the policy means women in the early stages of pregnancy or having their period would have to get a doctor's note to justify extra visits to the loo. Unite, joint general secretary, Tony Woodley said: 'The workers at Brown Brothers are essentially having their pay stopped for going to the toilet. Tesco must do everything in its power to investigate these practices and put an end to them. Tesco need to get out there, see what's going on and then act quickly together with the union to ensure decent treatment of workers in its supply chain.'
Unite news release. IUF news release. Dumfries Standard. Guidance on toilet breaks.
Action needed on hours at sea
Port authorities need to get tough on seafarers' working hours, the union Nautilus UK has warned. Opening an 8 July Cardiff University seminar on fatigue in shipping, general secretary Brian Orrell told delegates that much more effort must be made to enforce maritime work and rest hour regulations. Fatigue is literally killing seafarers, he warned, with excessive working hours also undermining efforts to recruit and retain maritime professionals. The seminar, coordinated by the university and supported by the union, was arranged to discuss the findings of a six-year government-industry research project. The union said the research 'reveals the huge scale of the problem.' Nautilus UK's Andrew Linington presented the meeting with the results of further research carried out by the Nautilus Federation to examine the reasons why many watchkeepers are unable to comply with working time rules.
Usdaw delivers carers' petition to No.10
A 50,000 signature petition calling for more support for working carers has been delivered to the prime minister by shopworkers. John Hannett, general secretary of retail union Usdaw, was accompanied to No.10 Downing Street by two Usdaw members - Sam Sedghi, a carer, and Maria Luff, a parent, who also brought her child along. The petition asks the government to provide more support, particularly to parents of older children and to carers. The union wants new rights including paid leave for parents of children up to 18 years of age and for carers; strengthening the right to request flexible working, and extending it to parents of children up to 18; improvements to maternity and paternity benefits; and sufficient resources to ensure the government's National Carers' Strategy can have a real effect. John Hannett commented: 'Our members need to work to live and many have to balance that with caring for children or elderly or disabled relatives.' He added: 'Providing more support for working parents and carers is the best way to tackle poverty in this country.'
Usdaw news release and parents and carers campaign.
National Carers' Strategy. Department of Health carers webpage.
OTHER NEWS
Power to demand fairness 'crucial'
There is a need for a 'new deal on fairness' if Britain is to be a successful global nation, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has said. Trevor Phillips, commenting as EHRC submitted its formal response to the government's Single Equality Bill, said there must be a complete overhaul of Britain's equality laws and a new contract with the public on fairness, with economic equality added to the mix. Trevor Phillips said: 'Our growing hour glass economy is the issue of the 21st century, the division between the haves, the have nots and the never-will-haves. The great danger is that economic trends are pushing our country towards the entrenchment of greater and more divisive inequality.' He added: 'While we are used to talking about inequality between different groups based on race, gender, disability and age, we need to think much bigger than that. We need to regain the habit of talking about vertical inequality -- or, in other words, that taboo subject, economic class. The gap between those who have access to prosperity and those that are shut out has increased in the last decade.' Mr Phillips said that any new equality laws should allow all to release their talent through being able to work in a modern, encouraging environment. Examples include allowing mothers back to work successfully after they have a child, protecting people who have caring responsibilities so that they can still work and contribute economically, easing the journey into retirement with flexible working plans and giving more young people the chance to be a success in education.
EHRC news release. EHRC response to the Single Equality Bill [pdf].
Euro court gives more rights to carers
Unions and carers' advocates have welcomed a European court judgment in favour of a UK woman who claimed she was forced to resign from her job after having a disabled child. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that she was discriminated against by her employer, in a landmark decision that will give carers more rights in the workplace. Sharon Coleman, who was forced to resign her work as a legal secretary, was found to have suffered 'discrimination by association' in breach of European Union (EU) rules. The 17 July judgment found that the European directive that outlaws discrimination at work on grounds of disability is not limited to disabled people themselves but extends also to those caring for them. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'This is a victory for all parents and carers who look after disabled children and adults. Employers now need to look at their recruitment and other workplace policies to make sure they are not discriminating against staff who have disabled family members or friends.' He added: 'Sharon Coleman's employer took too narrow a view of the UK's disability discrimination laws and the ECJ has rightly decided that the protection of the law must now extend to carers and anyone associated with disabled people, as well as disabled people themselves. Ministers must look at the forthcoming Single Equality Bill to ensure that it includes legislation to prevent similar instances of discrimination from taking place in future.' STUC deputy general secretary Dave Moxham said: 'This could herald a massive extension in the right to flexible working, which will, in turn, ensure that the best of the skills of all workers - particularly women - will be available to the UK economy.' Imelda Redmond, chief executive of Carers UK, said: 'This is an historic step towards true equality for carers.' She added: 'Although this ruling applies only to parents of disabled children, we will be urging the government to extend it to people caring for others, for example a spouse, parent, other family member or friend. Changes will need to be made to UK law and government should take a proactive approach and include all carers, rather than waiting for further cases to be taken through the courts.'
Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-303/06: Coleman, European Court of Justice, 17 July 2008 [pdf].
TUC news release. STUC news release. Carers UK news release. EHRC news release. The Times. The Guardian. BBC News Online. The Telegraph. The Scotsman. Daily Mail.
Equality watchdog gets it wrong on rights
Unions have reacted with dismay to suggestions from a top equality watchdog that enhanced maternity rights are damaging the long-term employment prospects of women. Responding to a speech by Nicola Brewer, chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), unions warned that her comments risked reinforcing the attitudes of 'Neanderthal' employers. Ms Brewer had told a 14 July conference: 'The increasing leave entitlement for women seems hard to argue against, but I think it presents us with an inconvenient truth. Has public policy on maternity leave made too many assumptions about the choices families will make, and as a result entrenched the stereotype that it is women who do the caring?' She said mothers and not fathers would be viewed by employers as being on the 'baby track.' Responding to the comments, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'The idea that extending family-friendly rights would somehow hurt women's job prospects is a myth commonly peddled by employers who don't want to employ women of child-bearing age or give male staff time off to spend with their children.' He added: 'Proposals to increase flexible working rights to the parents of older children and allow up to six months of maternity leave to be transferred to fathers will help combat these entrenched views about family-friendly rights and will benefit all parents. Increasing paid parental leave will also mean more fathers are able to afford time off. But the best way to end any misinterpretation of these rights would be to extend flexible working rights to everyone.' GMB equality officer Kamaljeet Jandu said: 'Rather than focusing her comments of Neanderthal attitudes of some employers she is missing the point that maternity and parental rights are good for employers, parents and the wider economy.'
Nicola Brewer's speech in full, Working better consultation, 14 July. TUC news release. GMB news release. BBC News Online. The Guardian.
Plan to extend paternity leave rights
The government hopes to encourage fathers to spend more time with their children by changing the emphasis of family policy and extending their rights. They plan to make it easier for fathers to take paternity and parental leave, and to work flexible hours. Labour sources cited in the 22 July edition of the Independent said the aim is to help mothers who want to work and fathers who want to spend more time with their children. Paternity leave may be made more adaptable. Plans to give fathers the right to take the second half of paid 'maternity' leave, when it is extended to a year in 2010, may be made more flexible. In May, business secretary John Hutton said the government intended to extend the right to ask to work part-time or flexible hours to all parents of children up to the age 16. The current cut-off age is six.
The Independent. The Guardian. The Telegraph.
Parental leave call to tackle youth crime
More flexible parental leave could help the government tackle youth crime, retail union Usdaw has said. Responding to the Youth Crime Action Plan published by the Home Office on 15 July, the union said it believes that allowing parents leave from work to look after children at difficult times, such as on exclusion from school, will help family cohesion and prevent young people at a loose end from getting into trouble. Usdaw general secretary John Hannett said: 'We welcome the government's plan to reduce youth crime, and especially the focus on supporting families. Working parents need to be allowed the flexibility to deal with issues with children of all ages as and when they arise. They want to be there for their children when they need them, and help them stay away from crime.' The union leader added: 'Currently parents of children up to the age of 5 can take up to 13 weeks unpaid leave per year. We'd like to see the government extend this to age 16, in line with the right to request flexible working hours. We are also calling for parents to be able to take that leave in blocks of one day rather than one week and decrease the notice period from 21 days. This would allow them to take their children to medical appointments, attend school events and parents' evenings. Most importantly, in the light of the government's Youth Crime Plan, our proposals would mean that parents can be there at times when children need extra help, such as when starting a new school, during exams or when they have behavioural problems.'
Home Office news release and Youth Crime Action Plan webpages. Usdaw news release. BBC News Online.
Welfare reform proposals criticised
The government may require lone parents to take part in training for a return to work even before their children are of school age. The reforms - which also include a target of getting one million people off incapacity benefit by 2015, equality for people with disabilities by 2025 and 80 per cent employment - were announced on 21 July by the work and pensions secretary, James Purnell. The welfare reform green paper proposes that those with children aged seven or over will be expected to seek work but suggests training for those with younger children. The additional benefits would be granted to lone parents of younger children if they attended a 'skills health check.' The green paper also says unemployed people will be forced to work for their benefits. It includes plans to scrap incapacity benefit and make those jobless for more than two years work full-time in the community. Critics say the proposals duck the issue of the availability of suitable, decent jobs, instead blaming the victims for their plight. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'People who lose their jobs want help in getting new skills and new paying jobs, not make-work schemes that provide no pay, no prospects and not even any time to search for a new job.' Stephen Bevan, director of research at The Work Foundation, commented: 'The right of the state to expect people to seek work in return for support needs to be balanced by a corresponding concern for the quality of work people do. If it's bad work, as in short-term, insecure, low-paying, monotonous, and sometimes degrading, with no way to rise on merit, the plans are likely to fail and the revolving door between work and benefits will keep turning.' Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), said: 'We reject the assertion that sanctions are effective - cutting already low incomes worsens poverty; most who are able to work are already trying hard to do so; and research continues to show how poorly understood the sanctions regime is by those who receive penalties.'
DWP news release and green paper. TUC news release. CBI news release. The Guardian. BBC News Online.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Recruitment prejudices: Employers are flouting the law by asking recruitment agencies to screen out women of childbearing age, and it is up to agencies to stop the practice, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). REC head of public policy, Anne Fairweather, said: 'Worryingly, the REC found that 78 per cent of recruiters had been asked by employers not to put forward women of a childbearing age,' adding: 'These are clearly discriminatory requests that are illegal.' REC news release.
Lowered ceiling: The number of women in top management posts in the senior Civil Service has fallen for the past three years, despite government diversity targets being set four years ago. The Civil Service Commissioners' Annual Report revealed that for 2007/08, only 24 per cent of all senior appointments went to women, compared to 27 per cent the year before, and 32 per cent the year before that. CSC news release and CSC annual report 2007/08. Personnel Today.
Holiday fear: A growing number of UK executives are scrapping summer holidays, with one in four not using their full holiday entitlement this year as the credit crunch, redundancy fears and the pressure to deliver results take their toll. A survey by the Chartered Management Institute shows found senior executives had postponed holiday plans and a large proportion of those that do go away continue to work. CMI news release. The Guardian.
Positive engineering: Half of the UK's engineering firms are now offering flexible working, with 40 per cent allowing homeworking, according to research by the UK's biggest engineering consultant. The study by Atkins also found some firms are now allowing up to 40 days' annual leave. Atkins news release. Personnel Today.
Media bullying: Journalists' union NUJ it telling its union reps how to tackle workplace bullying. NUJ equality officer, Lena Calvert, said: 'Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect at work, but too often this is not the case.' NUJ news release. Stop bullying: Challenging bullies and achieving dignity at work [pdf]. NUJ dignity at work model agreement [word].
RESOURCES
Global union precarious work campaign
Globalisation is not just about stuff - how and where it is made. It's also about people. Transnational companies want cheap and flexible workers. So they have shifted from secure to insecure employment - making all jobs more precarious. 'Precarious work affects us all' is a global union campaign to stop the rise in precarious employment and to regain power and justice for working people. Campaign webpages prepared by the global metal unions' federation IMF provide links to materials, background information and details on what trade unions around the world are doing to mobilise against precarious work. IMF notes: 'Precarious work is bad for all workers. It creates cut-price labour that drives down wages for all. It increases the gap between the rich and poor and amplifies the unfair practices that already disadvantage women, young and migrant workers.' IMF says unions around the world 'are challenging the legal and political ruses that allow precarious work to flourish.' The campaign is urging unions to mobilise globally to address the problem. New materials in several languages will be added to the website in the coming weeks, including workplace action guides and posters. The campaign has the backing of global union federations representing all sectors in the workplace.
IMF 'Precarious work affects us all' campaign websites.
Gender equality in journalism
IFJ, the global union federation for journalists' unions worldwide, publishes a regular gender equality newsletter. The July 2008 edition is available online.
IFJ news release and IFJ Gender Newsletter, July 2008 [pdf] and gender issues webpages.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Australia: Union warning on work/care collision
Action is needed to help workers who care for elderly or disabled relatives or Australia will face a work and care collision from an ageing population, the country's top union body has warned. It says unless measures such as more flexible working hours and improved carer's leave are introduced, workers who look after relatives who are elderly, chronically ill, disabled, or even school-aged children will face the same pressure to choose between their job and family as parents of pre-schoolers. A July submission by national union federation ACTU to a Better Care for our Carers parliamentary inquiry says that if carers are unable to participate in the paid workforce, Australia will lose a labour supply of skilled and experienced workers in the prime of their careers. 'Australia is facing a work/care collision and we are not well-equipped,' said ACTU president Sharan Burrow. 'The ACTU has received horrific reports from carers who are constantly exhausted, feel isolated and marginalised, and suffer from depression or poor health themselves.' Improvements recommended by ACTU include the right to paid carer's leave, flexible working hours, and a capacity for workers to take temporary leave to care for a terminally ill relative. 'Australia is lagging behind much of the developed world in recognising the needs of carers, and this is a major challenge facing our nation,' Sharan Burrow said. 'The best support we can give them is to assist carers to combine paid work and their caring responsibilities.'
Europe: Social partners call for childcare
European Union (EU) countries are not investing enough in childcare, according to a joint letter from European businesses and trade union organisations. The letter, sent on 8 July to EU employment commissioner Vladimir ?pidla, stresses the critical role of childcare in promoting women's participation in the labour market. It was signed by representatives from the business world (BusinessEurope), SMEs (UEAPME), trade unions (ETUC/CES) and public sector companies (CEEP). The letter urges EU member states to adopt measures to make childcare accessible and affordable to all, as a way of enhancing participation in the labour market. It is part of joint action by the social partners to reconcile professional, private and family life. The groups said it will be followed by other initiatives. Europe's politicians have accepted affordable childcare is crucial to full employment and increased competitiveness as the existing gap between supply and demand for childcare and high costs often discourage parents from re-entering or remaining in the labour market.
ETUC news release. EurActive.com. BusinessEurope/UEAPME/ETUC/CES/CEEP: Joint letter from the European social partners on childcare [pdf]. 
New Zealand: Flexible working rights take effect
Unions in New Zealand have welcomed new laws granting workers new rights to flexible work. 'A new work right for employees with care responsibilities to request flexible working arrangements reflects workers increasing need for balance in their lives,' Council of Trades Unions (CTU) secretary Carol Beaumont said, on the eve of the new flexible work law taking effect on 1 July. 'We need laws that take account for our responsibilities outside of our employment, and flexible working arrangements can be part of the solution,' she said. 'Legislation isn't the only answer, but it does create a climate and culture of acceptance about the need for employer openness to requests - as well as a transparent process for employers to refuse requests.' Ms Beaumont added: 'Our message to workers not covered by the law will be to ask anyway, as many employers may consider their request for a change in working arrangements. And when the Act is reviewed in two years' time we will be arguing for its extension to cover all workers.'
NZCTU news release and workplace flexibility guide.
USA: Women educated better, paid worse
In June, a group of women delivered 9,000 résumés to Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's office to remind the senator that women are well-trained, highly educated and qualified and should be paid the same as men for doing the same work. McCain and those who oppose equal pay for working women claim women just need more training to get a better job. Not so, according to recent data compiled by the Department for Professional Employees (DPE), part of the national US union federation AFL-CIO. The DPE found that even though women workers clearly are better educated than men, they receive less pay in nearly every profession than their male counterparts. The best way to get better pay, the fact sheet shows, is to join a union, something McCain - who opposes the Employee Free Choice Act, which would ease the USA's anti-union laws - wants to make harder. Overall, women were paid only 77 cents for every dollar a man was paid in 2007, according to the US Census Bureau. Economist Evelyn Murphy, president and founder of The WAGE Project, estimates the wage gap costs the average full-time US woman worker between $700,000 and $2 million (approximately £350,000 to £1m) over the course of her work life. And DPE president Paul Almeida said even though women are increasingly responsible for the well-being of their families, 'wage disparity remains a serious and pervasive problem.' Research released in July by the Institute for Women's Policy Research confirmed that improving pay equity between women and men would create substantial economic gains for women and their families.
AFL-CIO Now. IWPR website and news release [pdf].
GLOBAL ROUND-UP
Pay resolution: Europe's trades unions are calling on the European Commission, member states and employers' organisations to take more concrete and targeted actions to reduce the gender pay gap. A 25 June 2008 resolution agreed by ETUC's executive committee also calls on Europe's unions to step up their actions and activities to reduce the gender pay gap, including pressing for urgent action on the 'wage penalty' linked to part time working. ETUC news release and resolution.
Maternity lure: It does not matter whether they are paid or unpaid: women who have access to some kind of leave after the birth of a child are more likely to return to work than those who do not. A major Australian Institute of Family Studies investigation of more than 3,500 mothers with children aged under two years old found that women are most likely to return to work about a year after giving birth, coinciding with the expiration of most maternity leave schemes. Australian Institute of Family Studies news release and full report. ACTU news release. The Age. ASU guide to paid parental leave.
French hours: France's parliament has passed a law which effectively ends the country's popular and compulsory 35-hour working week. The new law, which was supported by the Senate's centre-right majority but opposed by the opposition Socialists, will allow companies to strike individual deals with unions on working hours and overtime - however, fewer than one in 10 French workers are in unions. BBC News Online.
Hours demand: Trade unions in Hong Kong have called on the government to introduce labour laws setting a 44 hours per week work limit, with paid overtime for hours worked above this ceiling. Lee Cheuk-yan, general secretary of the Confederation of Trade Unions, said about 40 per cent of employees in Hong Kong work more than 48 hours a week, while 300,000 workers put in 60 hours. Earth Times.
Protecting temps: Employment protection for temporary and casual workers in New Zealand is to be strengthened. Labour minister Trevor Mallard said: 'The proposed changes demonstrate the government's commitment to protecting the most vulnerable members of the workforce and to providing an employment environment that is conducive to all parties conducting their relationship in good faith.' Department of Labour news release.
Newsletter (5,000 words) issued 28 Jul 2008
