Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Labour’s pledges and promises for women

Posted: 05 Sep 2016 03:10 PM PDT

Labour women's network, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour party promises, pledges, Decisive action against sexism, discrimination and violence against women and girls, for example.

Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and challenger Owen Smith MP have both committed to the "ground-breaking" promises they were asked to consider in order to improve the representation of women in the Labour party.

Both men have pledged their support to requests connected to the Labour party’s #leadforwomen campaign, and proposed by the Labour Women's Network.

This is the full list of commitments:

Support for a rule change for at least one woman in the Labour leadership team in future;

Support for a rule change for 50:50 representation on every Labour committee;

Deliver a gender balanced Shadow Cabinet, including the four great offices of state;

Deliver gender balance and equal pay in their senior staff team;

Act to prevent any reduction in the number of women MPs following boundary changes;

Refuse to appear on any all-male panels – bar their own on-going hustings;

Defend the principle and implementation of All-Women Shortlists;

Ensure the Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities is a standalone brief;

Support the implementation of a comprehensive policy against sexual harassment;

Ensure the party monitors the diversity of its office holders, and publishes that data; and

Support for a formal voice for women members at Constituency Labour Party (CLP), regional and National Executive Committee (NEC) level.

And Jeremy Corbyn has also presented an Equality for Women policy for a future Labour government and talked about decisive action against sexism, discrimination and violence against women and girls.

In outline his policy involves investing in an economy that delivers for women, increasing women's representation in society, democracy and the Labour party and tackling sexual harassment as well as threats online,

Investing in an economy that delivers for women:

86 per cent of cuts since 2010 have fallen on women. Corbyn’s public investment strategy will provide a foundation for the economy to grow, and from this properly fund and democratise public services and end the cuts that women have borne the brunt of, as having made up the majority of public service users and the public service workforce.

Ending Britain's housing crisis by building a million new homes and introducing rent controls will help to address the nightmare of being trapped in abusive relationships simply because of a lack of somewhere else to go.

Ensure increased recruitment of women into Science, Technology, Engineering and Manufacturing occupations and tackling occupational segregation in our economy.

Labour would also give enhanced powers to the Equality and Human Rights Commission to penalise companies that do not publish detailed gender pay data at a company-wide level as part of tackling equal pay issues.

Increasing women's representation in society, democracy and the Labour party:

Supporting, as mentioned in the pledge to the  #leadforwomen campaign, all-women shortlists to achieve 50:50 representation in Parliament and have the same aim for all public offices, and supporting a policy-making annual Labour Women's Conference.

Publishing a regular 'gender audit' of Labour policies and consulting on establishing a high level, strategic Women's Advisory Board linked to the Leader's Office to ensure women are at the heart of Labour’s policies, and to support the Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, along with advisory boards on other equality strands.

Tackling sexual harassment as well as threats online:

Tackling harassment and abuse, by ensuring that Sex and Relationship Education is compulsory in all schools, with a focus on sexual health, healthy relationships and consent.

Holding a wide-ranging consultation exercise regarding online threats, on how to strengthen the law and its implementation and increase organisations' responsibilities towards promoting safe and respectful 'community standards'.

Within the party, take forward the recommendations of the Shami Chakrabarti Inquiry to consult on and introduce a wider Equal Opportunities Policy, training and guidance for members and staff, and recognising that online abuse is often also racist and homophobic in nature as well as misogynistic.

"We will never be a successful society in which everybody is able to achieve their potential until we have full equality for women," Corbyn said.

"We will not transform society overnight but working together we can take us further along the path to an equal society for all."

To read the full policy, click here.

Pensions: not accounting for ill health

Posted: 05 Sep 2016 02:45 PM PDT

TUC report, pensions, retiring early with ill healthTUC report: one in eight people are too ill or disabled to work to state pension age.

Around one in eight (12 per cent) men and women are forced to stop working before state pension age due to ill-health or disability, according to TUC research published today.

A TUC report, 'Postponing the pension: are we all working longer?', found that nearly half a million – 436,000 – workers who are within five years of state pension age have had to leave the workplace for medical reasons.

And the analysis reveals a stark North-South divide.

In the South West of England, sickness and disability is cited by just 1 in 13 of those who have left work in the run-up to state pension age, followed by 1 in 11 in the South East and in the East of England.

But this rises to 1 in 7 in Yorkshire and the Humber, the North East, the North West, Wales and Scotland and 1 in 4 in Northern Ireland, reflecting wider health inequalities across the UK.

The report also reveals that those who have worked in the lowest paid jobs – including cleaners, carers, those working in the leisure industry and those doing heavy manual jobs – are twice as likely to stop working before retirement age due to sickness and disability as managers or professionals.

Workers aged over 50 now make up one in three – 30 per cent – of the workforce, up from less than one in four – 24 per cent – in 2000.

The report found that nearly half – 49 per cent – of 60 – 64 year-olds stopped working before their official retirement age.

The TUC report has been submitted to the Independent Review of State Pension Age, currently being led by John Cridland, which is to consider what will happen to the state pension after 2028.

The TUC said that it considers that just raising the state pension age is too simplistic an approach to increasing the number of people working in later life, and has instead suggested:

A right to flexible working from day one in a job. Allowing all staff to request flexible working from day one (you currently need to have been in post for 26 weeks) would allow workers scope to develop a working pattern that suits both their needs and their employers;

Giving workers statutory entitlement to carers leave. Women are less likely than men to be economically active by the time they reach 50 as the burden of caring for younger or older relatives falls on women;

A right to retraining for older workers should be introduced, with paid time off work to learn new skills. Subsidies could encourage employers to welcome this;

Expanding auto-enrolment into the pensions system. This has brought an additional six million people in the workplace pensions system but millions, most of them women, miss out on employer contributions because they earn less than the earnings trigger; and

Giving workers a right to a mid-life career review. An increased focus on health issues in the reviews, such as advice about free NHS health-checks for 40-74 year-olds, could help workers identify current and potential health problems and work with employers on managing them.

The TUC's General Secretary, Frances O'Grady, said: "Raising the state pension age is an easy target for chancellors of the exchequer wanting to make stealth cuts.

"But these figures show that we must hold off on any further rises in the pension age until we have worked out how to support the 1 in 8 workers who are too ill to work before they even get to state pension age.

"People should be able to retire in dignity with a decent pension when the time is right.

"Older workers have a crucial role to play in the labour market but we can't expect the sick to wait longer to get a pension when they may need financial support more than ever."

To read the full report, click here.