Category: pregnancy and maternity rights

Survey reveals impact on families of low maternity pay

The cost of living crisis is affecting women and babies living on low levels of maternity pay and benefits, and affecting their health and wellbeing, warns national charity, Maternity Action, in its new report, A Perfect Storm, launched today.

A survey of 1,394 mothers who had taken maternity leave at some point between January 2021 and December 2022 reported that, while on leave:

  •     half (49%) were buying less healthy food and one quarter had gone without food to feed their children
  •     71% worried ‘a lot’ about money during pregnancy or maternity leave, an increase from 64% in an equivalent 2022 survey
  •     60% of respondents had relied on a credit card or borrowed money to make ends meet, up from 51% in 2022
  •     58% also returned to work before they were fully recovered from the birth due to financial pressures

The report outlines how criteria for maternity pay unfairly excludes many women in insecure work, women whose pregnancies were unplanned or unexpected or who have had periods of illness. It also states that many women are going back to work sooner than they’d want due to maternity pay being too low.

One mother taking part in the research said: “I had to go back to work when my baby was only three months old. I am still at work now because we couldn’t afford to live, we had to take a £5,000 loan to keep us afloat for those three months because maternity pay wasn’t enough.

“In the end, despite the fact that I couldn’t afford it, I went onto statutory maternity and got 12 months with the baby. We literally food banked it. We survived that way.”

UNISON national women’s officer Bukky Akinwale said: “Everyone is feeling the impact of escalating costs of living, but it’s hitting new families particularly hard. The failure of maternity pay to keep up with increasing costs of living is driving many pregnant workers and new mothers into severe financial hardship.

“As a union with predominantly women members – over one million of them – raising awareness of the issues faced by pregnant workers, new mothers and families, protecting their rights and campaigning for change is an important part of our work.”

The report makes recommendations to the government on how to better support pregnant women, new mothers, babies and their families, including:

  •     criteria should be changed so that more women who have zero-hours contracts can quality for statutory maternity pay 
  •     statutory maternity pay and maternity allowance should be raised to at least the level of the national minimum wage
  •     rights and protections at work should be strengthened, including a right to flexible working and family friendly working arrangements
  •     women should be able to access legal advice and support with benefits entitlements and rights at work through their maternity service
  •     the 30-hour entitlement to childcare should be available to families straight after maternity leave

Ros Bragg, director of Maternity Action, said: “The cost of living crisis has exacerbated long-term underinvestment in maternity pay and benefits.  We should be protecting the health and wellbeing of mothers and their babies and not putting them at risk through financial stress.

“Statutory maternity pay is just 47% of the national living wage and only 37% of women’s median incomes. Families cannot make ends meet with the costs of a new baby and this dramatic drop in income. 

“All mothers should be able to afford a healthy pregnancy and time away from work to bond with their baby. Pregnant women and those with new babies should not be struggling to eat a healthy diet and pay for essentials.”

Read the full report here

The article Survey reveals impact on families of low maternity pay first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Survey reveals impact on families of low maternity pay

The cost of living crisis is affecting women and babies living on low levels of maternity pay and benefits, and affecting their health and wellbeing, warns national charity, Maternity Action, in its new report, A Perfect Storm, launched today.

A survey of 1,394 mothers who had taken maternity leave at some point between January 2021 and December 2022 reported that, while on leave:

  •     half (49%) were buying less healthy food and one quarter had gone without food to feed their children
  •     71% worried ‘a lot’ about money during pregnancy or maternity leave, an increase from 64% in an equivalent 2022 survey
  •     60% of respondents had relied on a credit card or borrowed money to make ends meet, up from 51% in 2022
  •     58% also returned to work before they were fully recovered from the birth due to financial pressures

The report outlines how criteria for maternity pay unfairly excludes many women in insecure work, women whose pregnancies were unplanned or unexpected or who have had periods of illness. It also states that many women are going back to work sooner than they’d want due to maternity pay being too low.

One mother taking part in the research said: “I had to go back to work when my baby was only three months old. I am still at work now because we couldn’t afford to live, we had to take a £5,000 loan to keep us afloat for those three months because maternity pay wasn’t enough.

“In the end, despite the fact that I couldn’t afford it, I went onto statutory maternity and got 12 months with the baby. We literally food banked it. We survived that way.”

UNISON national women’s officer Bukky Akinwale said: “Everyone is feeling the impact of escalating costs of living, but it’s hitting new families particularly hard. The failure of maternity pay to keep up with increasing costs of living is driving many pregnant workers and new mothers into severe financial hardship.

“As a union with predominantly women members – over one million of them – raising awareness of the issues faced by pregnant workers, new mothers and families, protecting their rights and campaigning for change is an important part of our work.”

The report makes recommendations to the government on how to better support pregnant women, new mothers, babies and their families, including:

  •     criteria should be changed so that more women who have zero-hours contracts can quality for statutory maternity pay 
  •     statutory maternity pay and maternity allowance should be raised to at least the level of the national minimum wage
  •     rights and protections at work should be strengthened, including a right to flexible working and family friendly working arrangements
  •     women should be able to access legal advice and support with benefits entitlements and rights at work through their maternity service
  •     the 30-hour entitlement to childcare should be available to families straight after maternity leave

Ros Bragg, director of Maternity Action, said: “The cost of living crisis has exacerbated long-term underinvestment in maternity pay and benefits.  We should be protecting the health and wellbeing of mothers and their babies and not putting them at risk through financial stress.

“Statutory maternity pay is just 47% of the national living wage and only 37% of women’s median incomes. Families cannot make ends meet with the costs of a new baby and this dramatic drop in income. 

“All mothers should be able to afford a healthy pregnancy and time away from work to bond with their baby. Pregnant women and those with new babies should not be struggling to eat a healthy diet and pay for essentials.”

Read the full report here

The article Survey reveals impact on families of low maternity pay first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Workers’ protections at risk as EU Law bill moves through Parliament

Last week, the government’s Retained EU Law bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons.

The bill, introduced by former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, has set a fast-moving conveyor belt in motion, which will see essential protections for workers automatically vanish in December 2023, unless the government decides to produce new and equivalent UK laws.

UNISON is horrified by the measures included in the Retained EU Law bill. Many core workplace protections – including holiday pay, maternity/paternity leave, protections for part-time workers and equal pay for women and men – come from the European Union.

EU protections

For decades, EU laws have ensured decent working standards in the UK, shielding workers from exploitation and discrimination. Without this shield, workers in the UK will be exposed to an Americanised, hire-and-fire culture that makes work more insecure and dangerous – especially for women.

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea describes the bill as “an attack on all working women”.

Protections for working women have been developed over decades through a mixture of EU legislation, UK legislation and case law. Separating out those decisions will reverse years of progress for women, including:

?  equal pay: being able to challenge your employer if a member of the opposite sex gets paid more for doing the same job;

?  family friendly policies: being paid for maternity, paternity and parental leave along with any protections against unfair treatment, such as being sacked or being overlooked for promotion, when taking such leave;

?  pregnancy protections: protections against discrimination for pregnant women and women on maternity leave, and the right to suitable alternative work on no less favourable terms.

The bill now moves to committee stage, where a select group of MPs will examine it in detail and review evidence from expert organisations. UNISON will be submitting evidence in this process.

“Cruel and outmoded”

Since the bill was announced, UNISON has heard from hundreds of concerned members, who described what life was like at work before improvements to maternity, paternity and parental leave.

UNISON member Joe Walinets said: “I am old enough to remember the time when many women were routinely sacked for becoming pregnant, until the late 1970s.

“I remember female family members, colleagues and friends continuing to suffer harsh discrimination in the workplace, until 1993 [when the European Commission directive came into force].

“I was lucky enough to be among the first men to benefit from paternity leave, when my first child was born in 2004. Even then, I remember how my employer tried to get me back after 8 days instead of the statutory 10. The law was my greatest ally in telling them where to go with that, coupled with my union membership.”

Member, Pauline McSorley, said: “I had my child in 1996 before parental leave was established. I felt very much alone with the responsibility. My husband would have benefited from time to get used to parenthood.

“My council employer reduced my maternity leave from full pay to half after 12 weeks, therefore I had to return to work when my baby was 10 weeks. We should never return to these very basic standards. On reflection they were cruel and outmoded, even then.”

Another member said: “I was sacked from a part-time job in the early 1970s because I was pregnant. The excuse was that it could be slippery and I could fall!”

“Bonfire of workers’ rights”

Now that Jacob Rees-Mogg has resigned as business secretary, there has been speculation that new prime minister Rishi Sunak will extend the bill’s deadline from December 2023 to December 2026.

This comes in response to reports that critics, including legal experts and the government lawyer who designed the concept of retained EU law, say the timetable of reviewing 2,400 laws in little more than a year is unrealistic.

Last week, the Financial Times reported that the prime minister had been told it would take 400 staff in the business department alone to review 300 pieces of legislation that resulted from directives, decisions and EU rules over the past 50 years and that, given the cost of living crisis, this was impractical.

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “At a time when working people are experiencing huge financial pressures and uncertainties, we need certainty, stability and support – not a bonfire of workers’ rights.

“This government doesn’t have any mandate to strip away paid holidays, health and safety protections or to roll back rights that support working parents.”

UNISON’s head of legal services Shantha David, said: “UK citizens are entitled to expect basic employment rights in the 21st century. Yet the government’s plan to strip away essential protections around equal pay, maternity, paternity and holiday pay, and protections for outsourced workers, will leave working people open to exploitation, and without any access to justice.”

UNISON remains determined to fight back against the threats to workers’ protections in the Retained EU Law Bill.

The article Workers’ protections at risk as EU Law bill moves through Parliament first appeared on the UNISON National site.

The Retained EU Law Bill: An attack on working women

Many core workplace protections – holiday pay, maternity pay and equal pay for women and men – come from the European Union. For decades, EU laws have ensured decent working standards in the UK, shielding workers from exploitation and discrimination. 

As a trade union working to tackle exploitation, protect working people and to promote decent pay and work, UNISON is horrified about the proposals contained in the Retained EU Law Bill.

Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg has introduced the Bill as the final stage of the UK’s departure from the EU. It has set a fast-moving conveyor belt in motion, which will see many workers’ protections automatically vanish in December 2023 unless the government elects to produce new UK laws. 

Many of these basic protections are those workers take for granted, including:

  • Holidays: being allowed to take paid annual leave – leaving only a minimum entitlement of 8 bank holidays for UK workers;
  • Equal pay: being able to challenge your boss if a member of the opposite sex gets paid more for doing the same job.
  • Family friendly policies: being paid for maternity, paternity and parental leave along with any protections against unfair treatment, such as being sacked or being overlooked for promotion, when taking such leave;
  • Rest breaks: the right to have a rest break of 20 minutes when working over six hours and the right to have a two day break every fortnight;
  • Pregnancy protections: protections against discrimination for pregnant women and women on maternity leave, and the right to suitable alternative work on no less favourable terms;
  • Security if your job is outsourced: outsourced workers can have their pay cut, sick and holiday pay and leave cut, and they don’t even need to be informed and consulted before a transfer. Outsourced workers could simply be sacked if their employment is taken over by a new organisation;
  • Safety at work: removal of support and paid time off for health and safety reps, whose role it is to protect and keep people safe at work;
  • Fire and rehire: removal of the few existing protections against fire and rehire and mass redundancy.

Without these core protections, UK workers – especially women – will be thrown back to the 1950s. Without the shield of EU law, workers in the UK will be exposed to an Americanised, hire-and-fire culture that makes work more insecure and dangerous.

The bill will smash a wrecking ball through decades of hard-won protections for women in the workplace, such as removing the ability to make claims for equal pay for work of equal value.

It will also remove ‘family-friendly’ policies that support working parents, which seek to ensure that childcare is not a ‘women’s issue’ but can be shared through parental leave and paternity leave.

These rights have developed through a mixture of legislation and legal decisions by courts. 

Over the years, UNISON’s specialist in-house legal team has secured important and groundbreaking legal changes for workers in the UK Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice, which includes successfully bringing down the government’s unlawful Employment Tribunal fees regime.

UNISON head of legal services Shantha David said: “At midnight on 1 January 2024, a great number of crucial employment rights developed over the last 50 years will disappear.  The UK government helped to formulate these laws as a member of the EU.

“We have brought challenges which have established legal principles creating certainty for workers and their employers. But now, in the name of ‘red tape’ these hard fought legal principles will disappear. We see this for what it is: an attack on workers.”

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “At a time when working people are experiencing huge financial pressures and uncertainties, we need stability and support – not a bonfire of workers’ rights.

“This Government doesn’t have any mandate to strip away paid holidays, health and safety protections or to roll back rights that support working parents.

“This bill is an attack on all working women. Jacob Rees-Mogg is determined to throw women back to the 50s – without any maternity or pregnancy rights, without equal pay, and without any right to remain in the workplace.

“UNISON, and the 1.3 million people who make up our membership, will not stand to let this happen.”

Will you help UNISON fight to secure workers' protections?

UNISON is campaigning to secure workers' protections in the Retained EU Law Bill, and wants workers’ voices to reach the heart of government. Please answer as little or as much as you can to the following questions.

The article The Retained EU Law Bill: An attack on working women first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Help boost protection for pregnant women and new parents

UNISON is urging members to call on their MPs to support the second reading of a bill that would boost workplace protection for pregnant women and new parents.

The union is concerned about how many pregnant workers are experiencing unfair treatment or discrimination at work – including being singled out for redundancy. During the pandemic, many women were forced out of their jobs because employers didn’t know the law or simply ?chose to ignore it.

The union has been working with Dan Jarvis MP on a private member’s bill that, if passed, will provide pregnant women and new parents with additional protection from redundancy.

With three in four working people currently experiencing maternity discrimination, this bill is a step towards providing working families with security and dignity in the workplace when they take the enormous step of becoming a parent.

By extending Regulation 10 of the Maternity and Paternity Leave Regulations 1999, the bill will prevent employers from laying off new mothers by extending redundancy protections to six months (180 days).

But the new law is at risk of getting stalled in Parliament – and UNISON needs your help to ensure it gets past the next hurdle. This Friday, MPs have the chance to show their support for this bill at its second reading.

Please write to your MP to encourage them to turn up and show their support for the thousands of parents facing discrimination in the workplace.

The article Help boost protection for pregnant women and new parents first appeared on the UNISON National site.