Why women’s unemployment rates are set to rise



Nicola Smith

 The TUC Toucstone blog has contributions from Congress House staff. The blog below has been posted by the Head of our Economic Affairs department, Nicola Smith.

New TUC analysis (admittedly published several weeks ago – but time has been tight!) shows that women are set for a tough time in the labour market. Across the UK more women than men work in the public sector, and it turns out that 34 per cent of women who are employed (around 4,650,000 women) are in public sector jobs compared to 17 per cent of employed men (around 2,600,000)*. In some regions female unemployment is even more concentrated in public sector employment: 42 per cent of employed women in Northern Ireland, 37 per cent in the North West and 36 per cent in Yorkshire are in public sector jobs. Given 110,000 public sector jobs were lost in the second quarter (over five times more than the OBR forecast anticipated would be lost over the entire financial year) if job losses continue at even half this rate women are set to take a considerable hit.


But our key finding is that over the last decade the public sector has been responsible for the vast majority of net female jobs growth (84 per cent), whereas for men it has only created 39 per cent of net new jobs. Not only do women look set to lose a lot of work, but it’s far from clear where they will find new jobs.


The poorer rate of private sector jobs growth over the decade is clearly partly a result of the global recession. However, the sharp gender divide shows the extent to which women’s employment rates have been linked to new public sector employment opportunities. In some regions the position is even starker. In the East and West Midlands, and in the South East, private sector net job creation for women was negative. The proportion of all employed women, and men, working in the public sector has risen over the decade – from 31 per cent to 34 per cent for women and from 16 per cent to 17 per cent for men. No doubt these figures are now set to fall – with a great deal of human pain in the process. Whether those who lose their jobs will find more work is another question: our analysis also sets out the extent of the ongoing fall in manufacturing employment and the hit that retail jobs took during the recession. The harsh reality is that at the moment it really is hard to see where the new jobs are going to come from.


* Note: these figures are from the Labour Force Survey, which is a self-reported sample survey. This means that the numbers reporting as employed in the public sector are slightly larger than ONS’s public sector employment series (which is not disaggregated by gender) as they also include people who work for private sector contractors in the public sector, for example in cleaning or security roles.

Coaches to Manchester this Sunday

A number of unions and trades councils have now informed us of their coach details for this Sunday's Manchester for the Alternative march and rally at the Conservative Party conference. These are listed below -please circulate and consider a financial donation to help these colleagues who have put the money up front to ensure a good presence of midlands trade unionists at this important protest.

Coventry TUC coach (8.30 am from Coventry Swimming Baths). Two Unite branches and Unison have covered most of the cost.  Anyone needing a seat can ring Clive Dixon on 07799 340559.
Derby UNISON Only 12 seats left on the Sunday 2nd Oct. coach to Manchester. To book your place leaving Derby at 9:30am Full St. email unison@derby.gov.uk or call 01332 643217/6
Nottingham  Departs Nottingham (Royal Centre) at 9.00 am, Hucknall Market Place at 9.15 am, Sutton-in-Ashfield bus station at 9.30 am and Mansfield Rosemary Centre at 9.45 am. It is expected that the return coach will depart at 5.00 pm.

Union branches are asked to:

• Make a donation to Notts Trades Council. This will help us fund this coach and ensure we have sufficient funding to fight successfully in Nottinghamshire.

• Buy a number of seats for sale around your branch. We suggest a ticket price of £15.00 for waged and £5.00 for unwaged

Individual trade unionists are asked to:

• Pledge to come on the coach and bring family and friends with you! Family tickets are available at £40.00 for two adults and up to three children. Bargain!

• If you can’t attend but can afford to – buy a ticket! This will help us to provide a seat to someone who genuinely can’t.
Please let me know if you’d like a seat or seats on the coach. I’ll need a name or names, contact telephone number and email address, and your preferred pick up point.


Paul 07986 351 807
Joint secretary – Notts, Mansfield and Nottingham Trades Council


Walsall  coach organised by NUT and NASUWT for the TUC march for the Alternative demo on 2nd October 2011.  
Departure points are:
9.30am Hatherton Road
9.40 Jane lane School
For seat availability contact: djjones@nasuwt.net 

Wolverhampton   9am coach Falkland Street Wolverhampton UNISON-  details 01902 554095

9-30am coach Falkland street coach park,Wolverhampton from Wolverhampton NUT details 01902 429591 wolverhamptonnut@btconnect.com
£2 deposit £5/£10 tickets free to members
Stourbridge - Dudley .....01384 813875 picking up in wolves NUT coach
Sandwell - Walsall ..........07952 647479 or 0121 567 5446

Birmingham ............07904 960442
If you have confirmed details of other coaches please email aweaver@tuc.org.uk to be added to this list.

Hundreds of thousands of agency workers will benefit from new rights

Hundreds of thousands of agency workers across the UK will benefit from improved working conditions when the new equal treatment rights for temps come into effect on Saturday (1 October). Unlike fixed-term employees and part-time workers, until now agency workers have not had a right to the same pay and holiday rights as directly employed staff in the same workplace. This lack of rights has left them open to abuse, says the TUC.
Nearly half (46 per cent) of the agency workers who responded to a YouGov survey commissioned by the TUC said they received less holiday entitlement than permanent staff. One in three (33 per cent) reported getting less pay for doing the same work as directly employed staff and nearly one in three (28 per cent) said they lost out on overtime and unsocial hours payments. According to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the average agency worker gets five days less holiday a year than permanent employees.
The LFS also found that temps earned on average 68 per cent of the pay of permanent workers - a 32 per cent pay gap.
However, following years of campaigning by unions, from 1 October agency workers will benefit from new, improved rights at work.
From the first day of an assignment, agency temps working in the private, public or voluntary sector will have a right to use any facilities provided by the hirer - such as a crèche, canteen or transport services. They will also be entitled to information about internal vacancies at the company they are working for, and to be given the opportunity to apply for them.
After 12 weeks in the same role with the same hirer, agency workers will be entitled to the same pay, holiday entitlement and working hours as permanent staff, and they will also receive improved maternity rights.
The TUC believes these rights will help stamp out some of the exploitation that agency temps have faced at work, will help young workers gain a stepping stone into permanent employment and protect the well-being of pregnant agency workers.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "These new rights for agency workers are an important step forward in helping the UK's hundreds of thousands of agency temps get a fairer deal at work.
"For too long, agency workers have faced discrimination at work. They are frequently paid less, are required to work excessive hours with no overtime pay, and are entitled to less holiday than directly employed workers doing exactly the same job.
"Some rogue employers have used temps to undermine the terms and conditions of existing workforces, replacing permanent staff with agency workers on lower pay, with no security, no training, no sick pay, minimum holidays and no pension provision.
"But thanks to hard campaigning by unions this is all about to change. Now, after 12 weeks in the same role with the same hirer, the law will require agency temps receive equal pay for the job they do and to receive some of the same rights as permanent staff working alongside them.
"Recruiting and treating our agency workers fairly will make them more motivated and more loyal to the companies they work for, which will benefit employers and make temping a more attractive option for working people."

Manchester for the Alternative - details for coach parking

We have just received the following information regarding the drop off and coach parking details for this Sunday's Manchester March for the Alternative. Please forward to anyone you know is organising coaches for the event.

Coaches for the main march are advised to approach via the inner ring road and Trinity Way clock wise, exiting into New Quay street to access Water Street B5225 from the north – this will be one way and access will be for coaches and access for visitors of the Victoria and Albert Marriott Hotel only for safe drop off in Water Street.



Coaches will be met by stewards and given a reference number and an allocation to a parking area. The current plans are that coaches will exit Water Street and re-join Trinity Way, inner ring road anti clock wise.


For Car Park 1 (Q Park at rear of No 1 First Street) continue onto Mancunian Way low level exiting on slip road signed for Manchester Airport and Petersfields, Cambridge Street and second left into Hulme Street for parking. This will also be the pick up for the coaches. If this car park becomes full we are making arrangements for a second park.


For this second Car park (Euro Park Deansgate/Chester Street) continue onto Mancunian Way low level exiting on slip road signed for Manchester Airport and Petersfields, via Medlock Street, City Road East/Great Jackson Street and then directly into the car park. This will also be the pick up for these coaches.


There will be a small charge for these car parks.
The short March route will assemble at Barbirolli Square from 12.45, as this is just over half kilometre from the Q Park Car Park at the rear of the rally site any one who wants to join the short route to park in the Q Park and then make their way the short distance to the assembly point.

Brendan Barber's address to Labour Party conference 2011

Brendan Barber

"Chair, conference - it's great to be with you in Liverpool today to bring a message of solidarity from the TUC, returning the sororal greetings that your NEC chair Norma Stephenson brought to our Congress just two weeks ago. "In her address, Norma stressed the historic ties that have bound us together through good times and bad.
"Back in 1900 a resolution passed at a special TUC conference proposed the establishment of a new Labour Party - and today, over a century on, the alliance between the two wings of the labour movement is as strong and important as ever.
"But, as Ed Miliband said in his address to our Congress, we need to reinvigorate and reinvent that relationship for a new age.
"Together we must develop the policies that Britain needs - that the British people need - at this time of profound crisis.
"In the short term, we urgently need an alternative to austerity. A 'Plan B' to get people back to work, get our economy moving, and get tax revenues flowing.
"Because with each passing day it's becoming clearer that the government's austerity agenda is dragging our economy down.
"Just last week, the IMF warned that a double dip recession is now possible - and pressed George Osborne to change course.
"That's why we need a different deficit reduction strategy. Not cuts that scar the poorest, but fair taxes the rich cannot dodge. Not a four-year fiscal straightjacket, but a ten-year plan for growth.
"Not a headlong rush to austerity, but a sensible timetable for repairing the public finances.
"And as we set out our alternative to massive cuts, let's nail the Tory lie that the crisis we face was caused by Labour's investment in schools and hospitals.
"No, it was made in the boardrooms and trading floors of the City, where greed and recklessness caused the worst financial crash in living memory - leaving us with the deepest recession since the 1930s, and a trillion pound bill for bailing out the banks.
"Conference, there can be no going back to businesses or bonuses as usual - never again can we allow the financial elite to destroy the lives, livelihoods and living standards of the hard-working majority.
"Instead, we have to address some fundamental challenges. How we build a stronger, fairer, more stable economy, how we nurture a more caring, compassionate society, and how we make Britain a better, more equal place.
"Yesterday, Ed Balls gave us his five-point plan for immediate action that could be taken to boost recovery. Let me make five proposals on longer term reform that could begin to build the new economy that we so desperately need.
"One: let's transform the banks from casinos that enrich themselves into utilities that serve real people and real businesses, and support genuine wealth creation.
"Two: let's support more investment in the low-carbon technologies that can bring prosperity to our regions and rebuild our manufacturing base, as we face up to the climate change crisis.
"Three: let's create a genuinely fair, progressive tax system where UK plc, the City and the super rich can no longer avoid their moral and material obligations to the rest of us.
"Four: let's put the focus on generating decent jobs that pay fair wages, so that working people are no longer forced to borrow to keep up.
"And five: let's make the fight against inequality our defining purpose, so we begin to heal the terrible social scars we saw this summer as Britain's cities burned.

"Conference, we need that new progressive agenda urgently. Because with each day that passes, the damage caused by this ongoing crisis is getting worse.
"Today's announcement by BAE of 3,000 job losses is yet another devastating body blow to our manufacturing base.
"Unemployment going up. Real earnings going down. Living standards squeezed as we have not seen for generations.
"And with millions of public service workers fearful for the future of their pensions too as the government seeks to impose change without proper negotiation, levying an unfair tax on public servants in the name of short-term deficit reduction targets rather than long-term fairness.
"I hope that we will be able to resolve this dispute through negotiation and there is still time, but if that proves impossible, then at the end of November, an unprecedented array of unions will make common cause in a TUC day of action.
"The government will try to turn the wider community against the teachers, nurses, home helps and all the other dedicated members of the public service workforce with lies about gold-plated pensions. I am confident that they will fail and we will win the battle for public support and for fairness.
"Conference, in these profoundly tough times, working people across Britain look to us for answers.
"So let's work together to give people a sense of hope. Because I want to take pride in our shared history. But more than that, I want us to forge a shared future.
"Now, more than ever, Britain needs a strong labour movement. Now, more than ever, Britain needs strong labour values.
"And as coalition policies drag our country down, Britain will soon need a strong Labour government once again. Thanks for listening."

Update on speakers at Birmingham for the Alternative

Frances O'Grady, TUC Deputy General Secretary

As the march and rally for the Alternative approaches we are able to give more information on speakers at the rally.

We are delighted to announce that the TUC Deputy General Secretary, Frances O'Grady, will be joining us fresh from our Congress in London. Frances has worked tirelessly to support the Bombardier workers in Derby and we are expecting a contingent from the plant to march with us on Sunday.

Lee Barron, chair of the Midlands TUC and Regional Secretary of the CWU will host the rally.
We have already announced the presence of a number of General Secretary's including the GMB's Paul Kenny, Bob Crow from the RMT, Billy Hayes from the CWU and Mark Serwotka from PCS.
We are delighted to have three teaching union general Secretaries in Christine Blower from the NUT, Chris Keates, NASUWT, and Mary Bousted, ATL.
Sharon Palmer, Chief Executive of Regional Action West Midlands, will speak on behalf of the voluntary sector in the region and we have Jack Dromey MP for Erdington. 
Roger McKenzie, Assistant General Secretary of Unison returns to the region to speak on behalf of his union.
We shall have a speaker from a local disability group, and are waiting confirmation of the Unite speaker.
(Please note this is not the final running order)

Birmingham for the Alternative update

As the day of the Birmingham for the Alternative march gets closer, the final arrangements have been made to make this a highly visible event and a key element in the Midlands TUC campaign to promote an alternative to the governments policies of slash and burn.
We are delighted to announce further speakers including the General Secretary of the RMT, Bob Crow. Bob has been a key player in the campaign to keep midlands jobs at Bombardier in Derby, together with the TUC's Frances O'Grady who has made significant interventions to support local rail jobs.
Both will be speaking at the rally in the Ludgate Hill car park at the end of the march.