Women's Views on News |
| Rethink on skills funding cuts needed Posted: 05 Mar 2015 03:26 AM PST
The University and College Union, UCU, has warned that cuts of up to a quarter in funding for adult learning courses risk decimating further education provision and leaving millions of the most vulnerable adults without access to any opportunity to improve their education. And analysis by the Women’s Budget Group has found that cuts to further education, particularly to adult community learning and ESOL, have a disproportionate impact on women. The union’s warning is a response to the Skills Funding Letter 2015-16, which has outlined that £770m of adult skills funding for 2015-16 will be set aside for apprenticeships. This means that the bulk of the overall 11 per cent cut to the Adult Skills Budget will fall on non-apprenticeship provision; and the Skills Funding Agency has estimated that this could amount to cuts of up to 24 per cent for non-apprenticeship learning in 2015-16. The UCU said that these cuts would hit vulnerable learners hardest, with millions of people who missed out on qualifications at school or those who need to retrain missing out if the cuts go ahead in 2015/16. The University and College Union (UCU) represents more than 120,000 academics, lecturers, trainers, instructors, researchers, managers, administrators, computer staff, librarians and postgraduates in universities, colleges, prisons, adult education and training organisations throughout the UK. It was formed in 2006 on the amalgamation of two strong partners – the Association of University Teachers (AUT) and NATFHE – the University & College Lecturers’ Union – who had shared a long history of defending and advancing educators’ employment and professional interests. Sally Hunt, the UCU’s general secretary, said: ‘This latest announcement is an act of wilful vandalism that will decimate further education as we know it today. ‘Millions of people use colleges every year as a springboard to improving their education and skills, and cuts of this size will shut the door on those who need us most. ‘The government’s myopic obsession with apprenticeships at the expense of everything else risks leaving many types of courses unsustainable, and UCU calls upon all those who care about further education to join us in fighting these appalling cuts.’ Please support – sign – the UCU’s petition to save Further Education.  |
| Help with another big push for maternity leave Posted: 05 Mar 2015 02:58 AM PST
Open letter to EU Ministers of Employment, Social Affairs and Gender Equality, all European decision-makers. At the eve of International Women's Day (8 March), the European Women's Lobby (EWL) calls on you to save the Maternity Leave Directive, which has been on the table since 2010 and is threatened to be withdrawn by the European Commission, in the name of red tape. We call on you to act immediately to send a positive message to women all over Europe that you care about their health and safety and their rights when pregnant, and on return to work after child-birth. We invite you to accept the proposal of the European Parliament to set up a Working Group to break the deadlock and resume negotiations. The threat to remove the Maternity Leave Directive from the legislative process is serious as it negates Europe's rhetoric on its commitment to gender equality and effective work-life balance for women and men in Europe. Adopting a stronger Maternity Leave Directive would have a positive and direct benefit to millions of families and would send a positive message to people across the EU that it is committed to their rights. The theme of the 2015 International Women's Day is economic independence. Women in Europe continue to earn on average 16 per cent less than men. It is often at the moment of childbirth that the gender pay gap kicks in, with life-long often irreversible consequences, as women's pension is 40 per cent less than men. The European Women's Lobby calls on all Member State governments and European decision-makers to DELIVER NOW!. We call on you to move forward to resume negotiations to ensure that a robust Maternity Leave Directive guarantees that all women in Europe have equal rights. Yours sincerely, European Women's Lobby. The proposed Maternity Leave Directive, adopted democratically by a large majority of the European Parliament on its first reading on 20 October 2010, has been blocked by Member State governments (Council) for over three years despite ongoing attempts to find a negotiated position and subsequent decision which never materialised. The proposed Maternity Leave Directive is an all-encompassing set of proposals to strengthen the rights of pregnant workers and women returning to work following childbirth and/or who are breastfeeding. These include: up to 20 weeks fully paid leave, a mandatory six-week rest period before or after birth whenever they choose, extension of the same rights to domestic workers and adoptive mothers, specific measures for multiple births and disabilities, protection from dismissal for six months, protection from imposed night shifts and overtime and flexibility for breastfeeding mothers. In addition, a two-week fully paid paternity leave provision is included in the European Parliament's adopted position, which bridges the gap in relation to paternity leave (also available to same sex couples) as there is no European Directive on this form of leave. It should also be noted that a passerelle clause is included for countries where a strong parental leave framework is in place, which means that the reality of the situation in different countries is taken into account and that women who are pregnant, have given birth and/or who are breastfeeding have the same rights throughout the European Union. The European Women's Lobby (EWL) is the largest umbrella organisation of women's associations in the European Union working to promote women's rights and equality between women and men. Membership extends to organisations in all 28 EU member states and three candidate countries, as well as to 21 European-wide bodies, representing a total of more than 2000 organisations. Reader, please support us: forward this letter to your MEP. Thanks.  |
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