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Women still treated unfairly on site

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Half of women working on building sites believe they are treated unfairly at work because of their gender, a survey by the construction union UCATT has found. However, safety was one area where conditions for women construction workers appeared to be improving, the survey found. More than 7 in 10 respondents (71 per cent) reported that sufficient attention is given to health safety and welfare facilities. These respondents said that there was access to women-only toilets and the correct fitting Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was being supplied. They did however highlight a lack of access to changing facilities. The top three problems, all of which were reported by over half of the respondents, were a lack of promotion opportunities, lower pay than male colleagues for the same work and isolation by male colleagues. Forty two per cent of respondents also reported a problem with bullying and harassment by managers. However, 42 per cent said they had noticed an improvement in the workplace as attitudes to gender had changed. Steve Murphy, general secretary of UCATT, said: 'It is encouraging that there does appear to have been some improvements in the workplace for women construction workers but this progress is moving too slowly. Women working in construction have an absolute right to be treated equally to their male colleagues and both unions and employers need to work far harder to ensure that occurs.'

UCATT news release.

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