Unite woman rep drives recruitment at Stagecoach
When Jaine Peacock started as a bus driver at Stagecoach in the Eastern region in 2004, just 15 out of the 250 drivers were women. Since 2006, in her role as a Unite rep she has worked with the company to make the job and workplace better for women members, and she has more women participating in union events and networks.
First, the union pushed for a specific women’s uniform and recently it has pushed the company to develop a maternity uniform and produce a new A5 booklet on maternity rights. It has also made progress on getting decent rest room and toilet facilities for women and cutting down on continuous driving hours, which are particularly difficult for women during their period.
Jaine pressed the company to give a breakdown of the number of women employees in the company and by job type. It showed very few women in driver jobs, many women cleaners and a handful of women in senior management. She then got the support of the HR director to develop a recruitment campaign targeting women, for example, by putting leaflets on the buses and holding an event where women had the chance to drive a bus. Two out of the five drivers that came through in the latest recruitment round were women.
She is now focused on getting more women to sign up to the new pension scheme as only 700 women are in the scheme compared to 7,000 men.
Jaine sums up the importance of getting more women involved in union structures and the role of equality reps: “Women won’t stand up for themselves in a workplace full of men because they are a minority, they don’t want to be standing out. So they don’t speak out enough when they’re on their own. That’s why it’s important to have a woman in the union’s rep role and to get more women involved.”
“I see the equality rep role as being about working with the company to make things better... They say they are committed to equality and they have these policies and procedures in place and, occasionally, you need to point the finger at them and make sure that in practice they are actually doing what they say.”
Case study from Equality Audit 2014: Improving representation and participation in trade unions
Stay Updated
Want to hear about our latest news and blogs?
Sign up now to get it straight to your inbox