TUC Women’s Conference 2019
The TUC (Trade Union Congress) brings together 48 member unions, and collectively represents more than 5.5 million workers around the UK. The Equality conferences offer unions such as Accord the opportunity to put forward items of business (we call them motions), which if adopted, become TUC policy. This article is a report back from our delegation at the TUC Women’s Conference which took place in March 2019.
Keynote Speeches
Mark Serwotka (TUC President) opened conference with a passionate speech on how strongly he felt about women's rights and their contribution to the TUC — ‘women should take their place in society and commerce and be powerful’. We agree!
Frances O’Grady (TUC General Secretary) added a tribute to Sally Hunt (Former TUC President), who has inspired the movement, and especially so as she served the TUC at its 150th anniversary at congress 2018. Frances also gave a special shout out to Olivia Colman for her tweet holding her Equity union card during the #HeartUnions campaign — it may be no accident that a week later she won an oscar!
Over the last year, there have been some great successes to celebrate, including helping the women who need it most by campaigning for the Domestic Abuse Bill (currently at draft bill stage). The TUC also helped set the agenda by exposing the real picture of in-work poverty and how costs outstrip wages. And finally, the twelve-year battle for equal pay was won for eight thousand women cleaners, caterers and carers in Glasgow City.
The political landscape remains stuck in crisis as a result of the paralysis caused by Brexit. Frances argues that the UK needs a deal that meets the TUC Tests as laid out in the September 2018 General Council statement:
- Maintaining workers’ existing rights and establishing a level playing field so that British workers’ rights do not fall behind those of other European workers
- Preserving tariff-free, barrier-free, frictionless trade with the rest of Europe to protect jobs
- Ensuring that trade and livelihoods in Gibraltar and Ireland are protected — including avoiding a hard border, and protecting the Good Friday Agreement
Frances highlighted the fact that millions of taxpayers money was being poured into Brexit which could otherwise have supported women’s refuges; surestart centres; or youth services to keep children safe from knife crime. She pointed to the fact that 90% of recent parliamentary debate had been taken up by men, and that women’s voices were being shouted down, silenced or ignored.
Other speakers include: Joyce Stevenson (STUC Women’s Committee Chair), Scarlet Harris (Maternity Action), Mandy La Combre (Trade Union Campaign to Repeal the 8th), and Dawn Butler MP (Shadow Secretary for Women).
Carol Knowles (Acting Joint President of Accord) says:
Attending conference is always powerful stuff.
It was a fantastic and fulfilling experience to be in the company of so many great women who make such a contribution and put their heart and souls into improving the way women are seen and heard in society and in the workplace .
Hearing from such empowered women such as Frances O’Grady and Dawn Butler MP gives you the power to push yourselves forward.
So, what else happened? Below is a brief summary of some of the topics that were covered and some of the important points you should know about.
Period Dignity:
There were a number of motions covering the impact of poverty and the impacts of lower pay on women. Something that can make a massive difference is encouraging schools, employers and other public spaces, to provide sanitary products for free. A woman will spend £18k on her periods throughout her lifetime, and a study by Plan International found that 10% of young women have been unable to afford to purchase products — the impact of this starts in school and continues into employment. Accord supports campaigns to ensure that women do not suffer this disadvantage, and we’ve been in discussions with our members employers to tackle this issue.
On the 13th March 2019, the UK government has finally listened to the demands of the union movement and other organisations. Sanitary products will now be provided in UK schools.
Harassment & Bullying:
In January 2019, we reported on new research that was conducted by the TUC on harassment at work, and conference was given an update on the campaign. In a previous TUC study, it was reported that four out of five women who said they experienced sexual harassment at work did not report it to their employer in case it impacted negatively on their relationships at work or career prospects. Two thirds of women between the ages of 18 and 24 have experienced sexual harassment at work.
Equity proposed a motion on the use of non-disclosure agreements which have proliferated as a way to silence women and other more vulnerable minorities from raising their concerns about their treatment at work. Some work has already been done in this area between the unions and the government, but there is more to be done.
Pregnancy & Maternity Rights:
There were a couple of great motions and debates on the rights of expectant and new mothers. In January I wrote about the Guisado v Bankia SA case which decided that the dismissal of a pregnant worker in a collective redundancy situation was permitted by Article 10 of the Pregnant Workers Directive — there was a call for this gap to be resolved in UK law and to afford the same protections to pregnant workers as those on maternity leave.
Another excellent motion called for an extension of Shared Parental Leave (SPL) for self-employed workers. This is important because there’s currently no financial support for self-employed partners who want to share some
or all of the childcare. The exclusion of freelancers means self-employed mothers are penalised by an inflexible system, changing the law is integral to ending the practice of holding self-employed mothers back.
If there’s something you think Accord should be doing or you want to tell us what’s happened to you, please do get in touch.
If you’ve been affected by any of the issues that we’ve discussed here and you want to talk to us confidentially, or if you want to give us any feedback on what’s been happening in your workplace: contact us at equality@accordhq.org
