Cutting Red Tape Can All Too Easily Mean Scaling Back On Equality – Fawcett

The Fawcett Society has given an initial response to the Budget 2011.

Anna Bird, Acting Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society, said:

“On the 1st April, the deepest and most severe spending cuts peacetime Britain has ever seen will start to bite, when many of the measures the Chancellor outlined in the last budget become a reality.

“Female unemployment is already at its highest in more than 20 years and is set to rise still further, but the one million unemployed women in Britain will find little in the way of welfare support to fall back on. Women’s incomes will be further squeezed as child benefit is frozen, housing benefit capped, maternity payments scrapped and the value of benefits and tax credits reduced.

“Against this backdrop, today’s budget was an opportunity to present a credible growth plan which includes consideration of how to enable women to take up new jobs in the private sector, through measures to tackle the private sector pay gap and promote family-friendly jobs which reflect the needs of a modern workforce. Instead, it is set to make working life more difficult for many women.

“The Plan for Growth published alongside the budget includes plans to review all current regulations affecting business, with a presumption that many will be scrapped to unburden business. Employment law is also up for review, with the government’s stated aim around this just to reduce costs. The moratorium on changes to employment practice in small businesses risks creating a two-tier system of rights with women lucky enough to be employed in bigger companies enjoying the government’s pledge to make the country’s workplaces more family friendly, while those unlucky enough to work in small businesses are left behind. Add to this plans to water down much of the regulation on the books but yet to take effect – such as plans to extend the right to flexible working and tackle dual discrimination – and it’s clear that yet again it will be hard-working women – who take the hit. (1)

“Cutting red tape can all too easily mean scaling back on equality. Depicting all regulation as bad for business and bad for growth misses the point; improved employment rights have enabled the huge increase in women entering and staying in the workforce over the past thirty years. As more women face an uncertain future, we should be mindful of the fact that a healthy labour market cannot exist if women are not enabled to take their rightful part in it.”

Notes:

The Fawcett Society will with the Women’s Budget Group be producing a more comprehensive analysis of the Budget 2011, specifically its impact on equality between women and men. This is set to be released later next week.

Posted 24 March, 2011 (13:44) | Notices |