[page 1]
afi aeecielinn A WOMAN'S (am second edition TO WORK: 2 THE CASE FOR ~POSITIVE ACTION | How we c | fight to ml job segr ga ation and inequality at work
[page 2]
This pamphlet was first published by the International Marxist Group in Spring 1980. It has been substantially rewritten to take account of changes in the last year and republished by Socialist Challenge in collaboration with Revolution, the paper for youth.
Contributors to the pamphlet: Denny Fitzpatrick, Anne Fiander, Rose Knight and Judith Arkwright.
Published for Socialist Challenge by Cardinal Enterprises c/o PO Box 50 London N1
ISBN No 0 85612 313 7
Typeset by Litho Print Ltd (TU) 328 Upper St. London N1 Printed by Black Rose Press 30 Clerkenwell Close London EC1
[page 3]
| AWOMAN’S | RIGHT | TO WORK: ~ THE CASE FOR POSITIVE ACTION
a Socialist Challenge pamphiet
[page 4]
What rights do women have at work?
The Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination Acts The Labour Government passed two acts in response to the growing demand among women for equal rights. The first embodied the principle of equal pay for women ‘doing work the same or broadly similar to that of a man’. But there were too many loopholes — the major one being that employers had five years before it became enforceable!
A number of areas of discrimination remained. The skills involved in women's jobs continued to be undervalued. Employers valued monotonous jobs in continuous production (mainly women’s work) less highly than noncontinuous production. Employers ensured that each job grade was designated either male or female. | To avoid comparison with men many employers gradually took women only!
At its most absurd, this led to a situation where one woman attempted to claim that she should have the same pay as the man who had the job before her; she was turned down on the grounds that since the man was no longer there she could not be compared to him and was therefore not entitled to equal pay.
The Sex Discrimination Act, introduced in 1975 outlines two areas. The first covers direct discrimination. This covers cases where an employer treats you differently just because you are a woman. The second covers indirect discrimination. This is more difficult. The Act is intended to stop employers setting criteria for jobs that exclude women unnecessarily through such excuses as a minimum height requirement. = It is lawful for an employer to take steps to encourage women to take advantage of opportunities for doing work done exclusively by men, but it is unlawful to discriminate at the point of selection for such work in order to achieve a balance between the sexes.
The SDA has a section which allows for positive discrimination in training and advertisements. But at the real crux of the matter, selection for jobs, positive action is not allowed.
The Act itself is not concerned with pay and conditions but includes terms of employment; the refusal of employment; opportunities for promotion; access to training; and dismissals and redundancy. This is apart from non-employment areas like education.
In other words the areas of pay and conditions inadequately dealt with under the EPA are not protected by the SDA.
The introduction shows these acts have not been successful. We ask why not?
Why can't these Acts defend women? Simply lifting the most obvious barriers and declaring women equal does not overcome the fact that women have been discriminated against for cen- 4
[page 5]
turies. This means that when women apply for jobs, their education, training and lack of confidence in male-dominated society put them at a disadvantage before they start.
In recognising that women start at a disadvantage, allowances are necessary to offset this past discrimination. Women will not come forward to take up any opportunities which do exist (sparse though they are) if they are not given some guarantee that special measures can be taken for them to overcome many of these problems.
Since 1965, when the percentage of women working increased dramatically, the female labour force has been more and more concentrated in low-paid industries which employ a minute percentage of men.
This has made it easier for employers to avoid the Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination Acts. Added to this, the past decade has seen an everdeepening economic crisis. Successive British governments ahve enacted more and more severe austerity measures which in a period of economic recession always means attacks on a woman’s right to work. These attacks have included automatic layoff of part time workers*, the reduction of the number of state nurseries, attacks on maternity provision and abortion rights. !
The restriction of women’s work and these attacks are made possible because of the fiction that women’s place is in the home. This widely accepted rationalisation is used for perpetuating the employment of womenin low paying, unskilled jobs — ‘They aren’t worth training because they’ ll only get pregnant or married and quit.’
It is used to justify unequal pay rates and low pay — ‘They’re only working for pin money.’ It causes deep divisions within the working class itself; ‘She’s taking a job a man should have’. :
Finally, it means that women workers are not proportionally integrated in the trade unions and other organisations of the working class; ‘She shouldn't be running around going to meetings. She should be at home taking care of the kids.’ | The SDA and EPA have not the teeth to defend women against this offensive let alone remove past discriminatory practices.
The effects of past discrimination. Throughout the history of human civilisation women have been the child bearers. This biological function has not necessarily resulted in them being seen as second class workers and second class citizens. With the advent of class society, the male-dominated ruling class developed the family in all its forms as a result of its need to organise society, to control the distribution and inheritance of wealth as well as developing the most efficient system for the reproduction of workers.
To establish stable family units, it has to be argued that women are physically and mentally inferior to men and therefore unable to occupy an independent place in society. Their role and status in society is determined by the family to which they belong and the man to whom they are married.
Prior to the industrial revolution, women worked in family groups which did not pose a contradiction between home and work. With the advent of the factory, the length of the working day and the arduous nature of the 5
[page 6]
work, the question of a woman’s place was posed. The concept of homemaker and housewife was developed and this resulted in women being isolated from the social labour and occupied with domestic chores, The nuclear family system continues to enforce this social division of labour by defining women by their childbearing role and assigning them tasks immediately associated with their reproductive function. Thus women are still thought of as domestic servants.
A woman from the time of birth is harassed by preconceptions about her place in society. Throughout school she is pushed by direct or indirect pressure into what are considered women’s jobs and roles. Given that pressure, is it any wonder that results for girls in O lvel maths are so bad, the number of female apprentices is so low and the number of women in high paying jobs so few. | In Britain today where, on the one hand, women have greater control over their fertility and 54.3 per cent of women are in paid work, on the other hand, there is little change in the type of jobs women do or the differential between men’s and women’s wage rates.
It is the centuries of ideological, social and economic repression that hold women back in this society. These old prejudices will not be overcome simply by society defining women as equal and opening all educational establishments to women. Past discrimination can only be overcome by reverse discrimination until equality is reached.
Job Segregation Job segregation is often identified as the main impediment to equality for women, but rarely described or analysed. It has become an accepted way of organising men and women at work.
Women are victims of deeprooted discrimination which shows itself most obviously in the sexual divisions at work. These divisions have worsened in this century. In the 1880’s for example there was a strong and well organised group of women who were surface workers in the mines at Wigan. But from the turn of the century onwards more men got into traditionally women’s jobs than vice versa.
Whilst women have been about one third of the total workforce since 1901 (the proportion moving up slowly) the change within industry itself has been towards greater segregation particularly in the skilled manual trades. In 1911 the proportion of women doing clerical work was comparable to the percentage of women in the workforce as a whole. By 1971, 75 per cent of all clerical workers were women compared to 21 per cent in 1911. Women were also more evenly represented among managers and administrators in 1911 than at any other time since.
The exclusion of women from particular occupations and their channelling into poorly paid jobs is a clear example of the oppression of women in our society. Even when they are in a mixed work force they do the unskilled jobs; because of their position in the workforce, they are not so likely to be organised into unions, they have minimal job security and during a recession they are the first to be sacked.
Job segregation exists at all levels, but its effects are less obvious in pro- _ fessional work like teaching where women and men have equal job security 6
[page 7]
Concentration of women workers by manufacturing industry (November 1981)
No of (% non- % total Industry women workers manual)* workforce Food, drink & tobacco 240,700 (23) 40 Clothing & footwear 221,500 .-. (10) 76 Electrical engineering 208,300 (31) =F | Textiles 153,700 (16) 46 Paper, printing & publishing 149,700 (44) H Mechanical engineering 109,400 (63) 15 Chemicals 105,900 (45) ZF Metal goods 105,400 (35) 25
All manufacturing industry 1,645,000 (32) 28 * at September 1981
Source: Employment Gazette January 1982 Table 1.3, December 1981 Table 1.10
but unequal promotion prospects. It is most obvious in the key sectors of industry: in mining, where women have not as yet been exempted from the Health and Safety legislation as they have been in other industries requiring shift work; in engineering; in steel; and in the car industry.
Who benefits? When women are in segregated jobs their pay and conditions cannot be compared to a man’s and the employer can perpetuate the myth that their work has less value. Capitalism’s use of women as a reserve army of labour is used both to exploit women and to play a role in holding down men’s wages.
The failure fo the Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts is one thing. But women are also facing a frontal assault from the Tory government at the time of writing. Why is this? Who benefits from women’s inequality?
When Tory minister Patrick Jenkin says: ‘if God had meant us to be equal he (sic) would not have created man and woman’ and that therefore women don’t have the same right to a job as men do; when Margaret Thatcher declares that she feels sorry for ‘latch-key’ children and thinks women should go back to the home; when the Tories moralise in this fashion they are acting as spokespeople for the bosses.
In the present economic climate it makes the Tories’ job of implementing cuts in public spending and holding down living standards a lot easier if women are prepared to stay at home — to look after a frustrated and underpaid workforce, to tend the sick and the old who can no longer hope to get proper treatment from the welfare state; to manage a tight budget in the context of rising prices; and to keep unemployed youth off the streets. These are the tasks to which women are assigned — doing a patching up job for the wounds inflicted by capitalism.
It is the bosses who benefit when women do go out to work since their position in the home is used as an excuse to justify low wages and poor conditions — in other words women act as a pool of cheap labour which capitalism can drawn on when necessary and shove back into the home dur-
[page 8]
Women’s earnings as a proportion of men’s earnings, 1970-79. Women’s earnings as % of men’s
75%
70%
65%
60%
1970 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
ing periods of massive unemployment often without a whimper from the trade union movement. No one but the bosses benefit from these divisive policies.
The way to right the wrong Throughout the years, many women at factories like Trico (1), Yardleys (2), Nettles (3), SEI (4), GEC Treforest, South Wales, Metmecs in Norfolk, H.J. Barlow Nuts and Bolts in Staffordshire, not to mention the Fords Dagenham equal pay strike, forced Labour to introduce this legislation. It was often through bitter and long struggles that their fights were won.
This is the way we can defend women’s rights when it comes to the crunch. The legislation is a boost to the struggle. Michael Foot dubbed December 29th 1975 Equal Pay Day. But it was the rash of struggles that broke out following it that made it a reality for some women.
But we have seen how transitory the gains which women have made can be.
It is plain that the Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination Acts aren’t working. Positive action or positive discrimination, recognises the fact that equal rights are not enough to ensure that women play a real role in society.
The time has come for policies and demands and action that will begin to defend the right of women to any job they choose and to control their own lives. This fight must be taken right into the trade union and women’s movement.
That’s why we fully support the call of the TUC for Positive Action. (See Appendix)
The present laws enshrine the principle of equality — but do not challenge the roots of inequality. Job segregation is one of those roots.
1. Trico Car components factory in Brentford London. These women fought a 21 week battle against the employers and the Labour Government who ruled their equal pay claim outside the pay code they had established with the unions over the Social Contract. 2. Yardleys. These women occupied TEGWU headquarters to get backing for their equal pay strike. 3. Nettles engineering factory in Stockport. In March 1975, 180 workers came out on strike in support of equal pay. It lasted 9 days. Several temporary workers came out and joined the AUEW. Equal Pay was won with no strings and on return to work an agreement for a closed shop was reached. 4, SEI. Women at Salford electrical instruments went on strike over bonuses and equal pay damands. 8
[page 9]
Positive action can help overcome this.
Fighting to get employers to open up jobs to women — to give women special training to enable them to carry out work previously done by men only is a step forward. Reserving special places for women — setting goals and targets to increase women’s representation at all levels is essential to breaking down the division between men’s jobs (usually higher paid and better conditions) and women’s jobs.
It also helps to break down the whole notion that men do the heavy, skilled jobs while women do the caring, servicing jobs — for we all know that these role definitions serve only to oppress the woman and keep her in servitude.
Women must begin to fight now for positive action programmes. The TUC model agreement (see Appendix 1) has to be campaigned for at local and national levels.
We have to demand that all employers actively encourage women to take up all opportunities.
Making allowances now to dramatically improve the representation of women means setting aside special places for them. Women will have to be encouraged to take up these places and will have to be given the necessary education and training.
Some examples of positive action Britain Some employers have already taken some of these steps.
Camden Council (an equal opportunities employer) has produced special publicity entitled ‘An Even Chance for All’. It shows a woman with a carpentry skill working on a site.
Adverts aimed at recruiting women bus drivers are now appearing widely. 9
[page 10]
Camden Council has established a creche for some of its employees and | have got one of the best maternity agreements in the country.
We want more of this. But not one of these employers guarantees a cer- | tain number of jobs for the few women who do come forward. Rank Xerox | in this country has a policy of setting targets to increase the percentage of | women employed in the following categories: sales; services; specialist; professional and management.
Their equal opportunity policy statement says: ‘Each unit should aim to have a consistently higher proportion compared with most companies fo women in what have hitherto been regarded as male jobs. Each unit will therefore be asked to set its own targets and maintain clear records of progress achieved. '
Quota systems or targeis to get women into new areas is a vital task for trade unionists to set themselves.
Europe In Italy the unions at Fiat cars won the demand for 50 per cent of all new recruits to be women.
In Norway all political parties have been asked to look at their selection | procedures to bring the level of female representation up to 50 per cent. | In Sweden there is a law, that when a company establishes itself especially in a region hit by the crisis, and gets money from the state, at least 40 per cent of the jobs have to be for women. Companies can also get most of the | wages paid by the government if they hire women in industries traditionally dominated by men. There is a law for courses paid by government funds that | gives preferential treatment to women in courses dominated by men and vice versa.
This is different to our present law which allows special courses for one | sex only to be set up. If preferential treatment were given to women apply- | ing for TOPS courses in engineering and other skills a massive boost would be given to the breakdown of segregation.
Many people quite rightly distrust the law because of the way it is often used to shackle the trade union movement. But in Sweden although a great | deal was achieved through collective bargaining on positive action, these | gains had to be enshrined in the law as well, as one way of ensuring them in | the future and registering the gains made. | USA The best example comes from the experience of Affirmative Action programmes of the United States.
In the US all government contracted employers are legally bound to set certain goals and to achieve them within a certain period. Failure to achieve these quotas can result in massive fines for the employers. This is a good example of what can be achieved by legal changes. For women laws have meant that employers have had to take active measures to encourage women. This in turn means that women are more inclined to fight for what is theirs. In other words changes in the law are not the answer on their own but they can give a stimulus and added confidence to women to apply for jobs.
What was the result of these measures?
GENERAL MOTORS have, between 1975-77, increased their number of 10
. —
[page 11]
women executives from 2.9 per cent to 5.1 per cent of the total and their percentage of blue collar workers from 13.2 per cent to 16.6 per cent. Their training college took in 32 per cent of women engineers in 1977 compared with 0.6 per cent in 1970.
At the BELL TELEPHONE Company, whose Affirmative Action programme was amended as it was judged by the courts not be effective enough, the numbers of women in Class 1 jobs with salaries over $30,000 rose from 382 in 1972 to 888 in 1978, including 28 black women.
A cross section of women who were interviewed by a local paper believed their promotion was a result of affirmative action. The situation in the countries mentioned above is incomparably better than in Britain.
Positive action and the law The 1980 TUC congress first went on record in support of positive action measures ‘as a means of shifting entrenched patterns of discrimination’.
It organised a positive action conference in November 1980 at which two approaches were put forward: * For voluntary agreements on positive action to be drawn up between trade union negotiating bodies and employers, often referred to as the ‘Swedish model’. * For a legally enforced system of goals and targets to increase the representation of women in male-dominated areas. This model is based on the experience of the Affirmative Action programmes in the United States which make it mandatory on employers to set such targets.
Because of the reluctance to involve the law and its proven failure so far, there has been a slow response to changing legislation. The ‘American road’ of legally enforceable goals and quotas was seen as ‘counter to the traditions of voluntarism’. Although delegates did not reject changes in the law the proposals which were drawn up (see Appendix) were largely intended only as a basis for negotiation. One of the reasons we have supported positive action in law and through negotiation is because we see the need to give the greatest backing to the fight for local and national positive action programmes. Just as the Equal Pay Act gave the impetus to many women to struggle for equal pay, so too, can a campaign to change the law in women’s favour.
Legislation with teeth may not guarantee women’s rights but as the Affirmative Action programmes in the United States show — it provides a support for women who want to fight.
British law (the Equal Pay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act) as it presently stands does not aid that struggle; it does not recognise that women suffer as a result of past discrimination and it even stops employers who could be forced to tackle this by compensatory measures.
Finally, a campaign to change the law can give a national focus and a boost to Unions in negotiating for positive action.
What changes are needed? The main failing of the Equal Pay Act was the way it evaluated women’s pay, by comparing women’s work to ‘work similar or broadly similar to that of aman’. This meant women losing cases where there was no male counterpart and worse still to an increase in segregation through job evaluation 11
[page 12]
alibebr reise
[page 13]
schemes designating areas of women’s work only.
The Equal Opportunities Commission and the TUC are in favour of amending this act to introduce ‘a notional man’ ie what a man would get if he were doing a woman’s job. But this could only apply to women who want to claim pay equivalent to a male predecessor or compare herself with a man who has left the firm. This ignores the fact that there is job segregation — that is ‘mens’ jobs’ and ‘women's jobs’.
The National Council for Civil Liberties have extended this to the introduction of the idea of ‘Equal pay for work of equal value’, which the EOC have now supported. With an equal value clause a woman could compare her job with a dissimilar job, incorporating similar levels of skill or value.
Of course it is important to tackle the weaknesses of the Equal Pay Act but it is also necessary to tackle something more fundamental. The overriding reason for the differential in men’s and women’s pay is job segregation, so whilst measures which close the gap are important, they will not tackle this problem on their own.
Job segregation not only lowers women’s wages but the net wages of all workers, by divide and rule, but also has an ideological impact on the status of women and therefore the value of their work. Women’s work is not equally remunerated because women are not seen as equals and so the vicious circle goes on. We need a policy which will begin to break that circle.
That is why we favour positive action to tackle these divisions through a campaign to amend the sex discrimination act, and implementation in the workplace.
Breaking the circle — fighting job segregation The Equal Opportunities Commission have proposed: ‘To extend the provision of section 48 of the Sex Discrimination Act to allow employers to recruit employees of one sex only when the intention is to train them for certain work.’
This, they argue would make it clear that positive discrimination in relation to recruitment for training is lawful. The scope of such an amendment is very wide. For example in the engineering industry, where there are virtually no skilled women in toolrooms, companies could hire for training.
We believe that such a clause should be extended to make it legally obligatory that employers set goals and targets to increase the number of women in areas where they are under-represented. This would mean amending section 49 of the Sex Discrimination Act.
The TUC and changes to the law Following the 1981 Women’s TUC, the TUC incorporated in its 1981 report on equal opportunities positive action programmes (see box).
In other words, two main amendments are proposed to the Sex Discrimination Act whereby it would recognise that women suffer from past discrimination and that compensatory measures to reverse this are lawful; and secondly, employers would be legally able to positively discriminate in favour of wemen at the point of recruitment.
These amendments could have a major impact on the fight for positive action and encourage women and the unions to take action. 13
[page 14]
Goals and targets However, again there is no recommendation to make it compulsory for employers to review their employment practices as is the first step in Affirmative Action programmes in the United States.
Such an amendment would place the onus of responsibility on employers to draw up goals and targets to increase representation in areas where women are unrepresented.
In the US any company used by the government has to comply with these measures otherwise it will lose its contracts. The law also brings penalty fines for companies who ignore it.
The Tories’ attempt to revive the economy means tax cuts for the rich and even greater financial incentives for private industry, while working people are faced with wage cuts, soaring prices, mass unemployment and massive cuts in public expenditure. Working people are making the sacrifices, Private industry and the banks are reaping the benefits.
These are the facts. Four banks together declared a total profit of £1,562m for 1979. British Petroleum declared £1,600m profit. Shell notched up a world record profit of £3,000m for the year. On the other hand cuts scheduled for 1981/82 will mean £3,600m less spent on public services than was planned by the last labour government.
The battle to kick out the Tories must also be a fight to return a Labour government committed to socialist policies. But the Tory majority at Westminster cannot be wished away.
Section 37 of the TUC report (1981) states: ‘The TUC is to investigate the possibility after consultation with other bodies, of drawing up a scheme for statutory application to employers and others who fail to demonstrate that, within a reasonable period and on a continuing basis year by year they have taken steps voluntarily to eliminate the practice of job segregation by sex and past effects of that practice.
Campaigning for positive action A national campaign for changes in the law backed by the Labour Party and the TUC must be launched to focus activity for positive action.
However, positive action has become an umbrella for all sorts of demands necessary for the liberation of women. This tends to blunt the edge of the fight.
By concentrating on the question of positive action for jobs we can emphasise the deep rooted nature of women’s oppression and our secondary role in the workforce.
Action on jobs raises not just the right to work but the right of access to all work. It challenges traditional notions of women’s role. and makes employers responsible for improving women’s opportunities.. For all employers the existence of a secondary status for workers be they women or blacks is an opportunity to pay less and exploit more. With goals and targets for women and blacks above the normal intake we aim to place the pi capa sibility for women's exploitation on the bosses.
If the trade union movement declines to back such a campaign not only does it allow women to go to the wall (in the mistaken belief that- men workers will get the jobs instead) but it allows the continuation of divide and rule.
14
[page 15]
Some national trade unions are beginning to develop their own positive action programmes and have drawn up checklists and recommendations. Below we reproduce some of these for information and as a guide to trade unionists.
Transport and General Workers’ Union Equal Opportunity Checklist 1. Negotiate a detailed agreement with the employer. 2. Get full information on the distribution of jobs between men and women in all grades and departments. 3. On recruitment and promotion, carefully examine all jobs to see if they can genuinely be done by both sexes. Only a few jobs, if any, are likely to have a specific sex as a genuine occupational requirement. 4. Challenge sex typing in advertising for jobs. 5. Demand detailed records of appointments by sex and publish them regularly. 6, Demand that the union participates in recruitment and that women are on interviewing committees. 7. Challenge qualifications in job descriptions which are not necessary for the job but which may exclude women. Such practices are illegal. 8. Women applications for jobs should not be asked personal and domestic questions aside from those necessary for administration. Men do not traditionally get asked such questions other than on application forms for administration. In any case, this is an illegal practice. If it happens, the individual concerned should be persuaded to take a case to an Industrial Tribunal. 9. On training, review all schemes and get them opened to both men and women. 10. Monitor male and female applications and take-up and completion of training courses. 11. Negotiate special ‘induction’ courses for women returning to work after breaks for having children, for example, so they can catch up with job changes and requirements. 12. Age limits should be carefully watched to see that no group of workers is excluded from recruitment, promotion or job transfer. 13. All grievances and disputes on the above matters will be much more likely to succeed where good, comprehensive equality agreements have been written down in detail after negotiation through established procedures. (From TGWU ‘Women’s Handbook’.)
Banking, Insurance and Finance Union Positive Action 4. Since there has manifestly been so little progress, we recommend that Institutional Committees of the union should consider setting clear targets for achieving a certain percentage of women within a particular grade or job by a particular date. Such targets would of course have to be realistic but their effect would be to add impetus to the process, and change it from one of aiming at general and vague objectives, to one of moving to achieve specific aims over a particular period of time. 5. The system should also have a built-in joint review programme which 15
[page 16]
could take the form of a joint working party to review and monitor achievements of the goals and to make recommendations for adjusting the employment practices accordingly. 6. Finally the efforts of the union should be redoubled to achieve a number of items especially beneficial to female staff i.e. internal advertising of vacancies, mobility by mutual agreement, workplace creches, improvements in maternity leave, (including a period of paternity leave). (From BIFU ‘Equality for Women — Proposals for Positive Action’) Some unions have given greater priority to the TUC Charter for Equality (see appendix 5) They argue that if women are unrepresented in the negotiating processes (and union structures) then there is little chance of introducing positive action programmes or anything else. Whilst this is obviously true, gaining representation for women inside the unions through positive action cannot be a precondition for positive action for jobs. Women want representation for a reason. The fight of the Charter can be linked to action on jobs now, One example of women fighting themselves is in British Telecoms. Women In Telecoms is a group of women from different unions across the industry.
The Equal Opportunities Commission gave them a grant to ‘produce a bulletin and other written material to encourage the effective implementation of the company’s policy particularly as it relates to women in engineering grades.’
They are using the magazine to take the fight for positive action into the unions. The first issue reproduced statistics on where women worked in industry.
They revealed the same pattern of job segregation, yet on paper British Telecoms has a good equal opportunities policy which was also published.
By comparing the two it was evident that special measures to effect real equality are needed. By the final issue of the magazine they hope to draw up a policy which the unions will take up. The idea has received wide support and is stimulating interest and debate on positive action. In one union the Post Office Engineering Union (POEU), the National Executive have responded to this interest by circulating the TUC Charter for Equality requesting Branch comments.
These examples of policy and action show how we can begin to take up positive action. In addition to fighting for positive action programmes for each industry or union we think it is necessary to also campaign to implement the TUC recommendations on changes in the law.
Furthermore, these changes in the law should be extended to make it obligatory for employers to establish goals and targets for positive action on jobs. Such a campaign has to be taken up both within the unions and the Labour Party. :
The Labour Party and positive action Over the past ten years, the women’s movement has had a big impact on the labour movement and the Labour Party in particular. é‘ Women’s sections and women’s councils inside the Party are now demanding the right to ‘make policy not tea’.
As a party which puts itself forward as the champion of the interests of 16
[page 17]
working people the Labour Party should be taking a lead in the fight for women's rights. In the past it has not done this and has indeed often reflected the worst aspects of male privilege and prejudice against women within its own ranks.
Organisations such as the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Women's Action Committee have spearheaded the fight against the secondary position which women in the party are forced to play. Positive discrimination has been seen as a major weapon within this: ‘Draft objective: To campaign for action including positive action to en- - = <= 5 sure that women are fully represented at every level of the party and thereby to strengthen the fight for a fundamental shift in the balance of power and wealth in favour of working women as well as men.’ (From the CLPD bulletin.)
This principle of positive discrimination has been expressed in demands for at least one woman to be on parliamentary shortlists; for women to eventually make up 50 per cent of the National Executive Committee and for five resolutions to be set aside at every national conference to discuss women’s issues. These are welcome demands inside the Party. Anyone who opposes them is thereby defending the status quo — a situation where women are generally excluded from life inside the party. All arguments that women should get there through ‘their own merits’ or on the basis of fighting for the right policies fail to understand that women have been trying to do this in the past and have got precisely nowhere. Special measures are needed to 17 |
[page 18]
turn this about.
But there are problems with concentrating solely on these demands.
Working class women outside the Labour Party must be mobilised. The principles of positive action must be applied to the actual policies which the Labour Party is fighting for. Many women are quite rightly sceptical about the advantage of getting more women into parliament (the experience of Margaret Thatcher has done little to improve the situation). The Labour Party will be judged on what it does now and in government for the mass of women and for all workers.
Positive action for jobs is one of the key ways in which the Labour Party should be waging a campaign now. | Such a public campaign should include the following: “ The adoption by the Labour Party of TUC policy to change the law to make positive action for jobs legal. Women’s sections and constituencies and affiliated unions should launch a campaign for the NEC and for Party conference to support this position. Such changes should be prominent in the Labour Party’s programme for women — not tucked away at the back witha few lines as it is in current publications. * A pledge by local councils to investigate their own employment procedures, drawing up goals and targets to encourage women and ethnic minorities and opening up training opportunities within male-dominated jobs.
Where local authorities have some say in employment and industry patterns in the area they use any means to impose positive action programmes on local employers.
The Greater London Council for example have pledged themselves to impose a code of conduct on employment of women on local enterprises — grants and contracts with such firms would depend on the implementation by them of such policies, including quotas for certain jobs, conditions of part time workers and equal pay.
The problem in this particular case is that positive discrimination as such is illegal, which brings us back to the first part of the campaign.
Finally the Labour Party should also campaign actively in defence of women’s jobs. MPs locally and nationally should come out and defend women who are fighting back — like women at Lee Jeans, at Hoover, at Plessey, Bathgate and Lovable Bra; Constituency Labour Parties should engage in solidarity action and the Labour Party should use the opportunity } to put forward policies which will challenge the notion that women don’t have the right to work.
Below we reprint an example of a programme drawn up by a Labour council. Why not discuss these in your womens sections, Constituency Labour Parties and unions?
London Borough of Lambeth Equal Opportunity Employment Policy — Excerpts Lambeth Council, as the major employer in the area, recognises the need for an equal opportunity policy. The policy concerns all matters related to employment affecting individuals and groups whether they are actual or potential employees. The active promotion of this policy is specifically directed at members of disadvantaged groups. Disadvantaged groups can be identified according to race, colour, creed, ethnic or national origin, disabilities, age, sex, 18 = Ea eR ee
[page 19]
sexual orientation or marital status. The Council is convinced that it is morally wrong to hinder equality of opportunity on such grounds and further, recognises that passive policies will not in themselves provide equality of opportunity. Consequently the Council will actively promote equality of opportunity within the following framework. |
2.0 Implementation 2.1 This policy applies to all potential and actual employees. The Council will ensure employment opportunities are available to all by enforcing the policy in strategic areas. In implementing this policy it is recognised that certain disadvantaged groups may encounter particular difficulties in employment. The policy is designed to be effective in terms of: a) ethnic minorities: the policy will aim to reduce the effects of racial discrimination in employment generally and to combat the problem of high unemployment amongst ethnic minority groups particularly in the inner city. Equality of opportunity regardless of race is vital, both to give individuals a fair and equal chance of developing their abilities and realising their expectations and also for the Council to make full and effective use of its manpower. Moreover, members of ethnic minority groups may have a special knowledge and experience which may be of particular value to the services which the Council provides for Lambeth’s multi-racial community. b) sex discrimination: an increasing number of women wish to work and many more no longer wish to give up their careers as a result of having children. Social attitudes may deprive women of opportunities to realise their abilities and thereby lead many women to lower their expectations. The aim of the policy is to improve the opportunities available to women. Again it is also in the Council's and the community's interest that the services of trained and experienced staff are retained. Men and women will be encouraged to apply for posts which hitherto have been staffed almost exclusively by a single sex provided there is no occupational qualification. c) disablement: the Council recognises the need to achieve the statutory quota of registered disabled people and would hope to go beyond the minimum requirements. Often disabled people are denied a fair chance at work because of preconceived opinions or judgements about what they are and are not capable of doing. Equally, it makes good sense to re-employ newly disabled employees after rehabilitation or training, but the need for physical modifications to office equipment or even the restructuring of jobs may often present difficulties. The aim of the policy will be to attempt to overcome these problems where practicable and so to enhance the opportunities available to disabled people, whether or not they were formerly Council employees, and this will be implemented in close co-operation with the Disablement Resettlement Officer.
2.1.1 Recruitment and Selection The intention of the recruitment procedure is to ensure the 19
[page 20]
widest response to any employment vacancies in the Council. The Council wishes to ensure the highest quantity and quality of candidates and will take positive steps to advise disadvantaged groups of all Council vacancies and of its equal opportunity policy. The Council recognises the advantages of recruiting individuals with specialist knowledge and experience of local needs.
The selection process is of crucial importance in this policy and must therefore be carried out according to objective, job related criteria. The effectiveness of the policy will be determined to a great extent by this aspect of the employment procedure. The Council will endeavour, through appropriate training, to ensure that employees making selection decisions will not discriminate, whether consciously or unconsciously, in making those decisions.
2.1.2 Training Training is an important factor leading to opportunities at work. In the first instance, induction is particularly important to give all new employees an understanding of the organisation. When needs are identified, training opportunities will be available to employees. In addition to the priorities of normal job training, encouragement will be given to minority groups or individuals, with special training needs, to undertake additional training, e.g. the Council will make use of the provisions of paragraphs 35 and 38 of the Race Relations Act, 1976. Employees involved in implementing this aspect of the policy will be trained, if necessary, in identifying and meeting the special training needs of disadvantaged groups or individuals.
2.1.3 Promotion It is in the Council's interest to provide equal opportunities to all employees and where possible, employees with the required skills and aptitudes will be promoted. Management must continually assess the promotion potential of all employees, having regard to special training needs, and all promotion decisions must be made in accordance with the objective selection criteria.
2.1.4 Conditions of Service National and local conditions of service do not in themselves discriminate against disadvantaged groups. Their implementation and the resultant working arrangements must be applied fairly to all employees.
2.1.5 Organisational Arrangements This policy applies to all Directorates and all employees of the Council, particularly those in a position of responsibility with control over other employees. Whilst the Director of Management Services will be responsible for implementing and monitoring the operational effectiveness of the policy, it is the duty of each Director to actively promote equality of opportunity. Management must ensure the full implementation of this policy by introducing specific initiatives in the areas under their control. In addition, each employee has a duty, both morally and legally not to discriminate against individuals or
[page 21]
disadvantaged groups. The Council will not tolerate discrimination by any of its employees.
Some of the Myths about Positive Action Does positive action discriminate against men?
Many people say they are against positive action because special measures for women means taking jobs away from men.
This is wrong. Positive action merely recognises that women are not equal to begin with and seeks to compensate for that. How can it be discriminatory to bring women up to the same level as men? People who say this want things to stay as they are. But unfortunately the status quo is not good for women. It is precisely because the removal of formal barriers did not work that we want to look for special measures. Of course, we are against discrimination between all those who are equal but we are not all equal and we should not be ashamed to say we’ re fighting for positive action to put an end to that.
Does it mean taking men’s jobs?
This question only arises because we are all under the threat of unemployment. The bosses and the Tory government are trying to divide the working class by implying that women having jobss means there will be less jobs for men.
Women’s unemployment is already rising at twice the rate of men’s. Is this helping men get jobs? Of course not. Unemployment is a deliberate way of weakening the whole workforce and of depressing wages.
What we really want is policies that fight unemployment, not ones that push the problem to others. Women first ... who next? What's your answer?
Positive action is part of the policies of the fight-back. It is a means of protecting the rights of the 40 per cent of women workers in this country.
It’s not men’s jobs against women’s jobs, it’s a fight for all jobs.
We’re not fighting unemployment just so that women can remain in the lowest paid, least organised positions.
If you're against positive action you're really saying that women should stay as they are. So why should women bother to fight to get the Tories out if little will change for them. Positive action can unite men and women against unemployment and for the right to work at any job.
Any one who says mining, engineering, steel and cars are men’s jobs is wrong. These are capitalism’s jobs whether men do them or women do them.
Women have not got into these areas because they have been assigned to the home — exactly where the Tories are trying to put us back. This division of labour has been used to oppress women for centuries. IT’s TIME IT STOP- PED!
Positive Action will be too expensive Of course opening jobs to women will not cost more money. It will just mean employers will have to think before advertising and overcome their deep rooted prejudices. 21
erectile
[page 22]
é ie ish =
Bereaerk Oe
CaREES Geer. hae pear Sacchi eer Sige ieee
[page 23]
ee Nevertheless no one can deny that promoting educational schemes, training opportunities etc. demand resources. These are important if women are to be able to overcome their oppression and become equal in the workforce.
We argue that even when there are massive cuts in spending the interests of women should be part of the fight-back — not just something for later when we have won our other demands.
Where the money comes from is not our problem because we at present have no say in government expenditures. The Tories can find £8m to spend on nuclear weapons to annihilate us and yet they ignore and perpetuate the oppression of women. We want the workers to decide on state financial allocation not the bosses’ government.
Do women bring down men’s wages? Many men blame women for the low paid jobs and poor organisation. We don’t. The fact is that women are concentrated in industries with relatively little industrial power. A strike of miners has more effect than a strike of hairdressers. So really it’s up to the stronger sections of the trade unions to make sure that women get the fullest backing in their fight for equality.
Do you believe that women’s fight for equal pay has weakened in the trade union movement? Has it made men’s wages less? No. So then why should positive action?
The number of women joining unions has gone up rapidly in recent years and the more unions take up and fight for women’s issues the more this tendency will increase. Sexist prejudices tend to blame women themselves other than look to what the unions can do to encourage women members to participate — such as fighting for creche facilities, meetings in work-time etc.
Why Socialists support Positive Action Some socialists have argued that demands for positive action are divisive — that they place women’s demands at the expense of men’s and are therefore not class demands.
We disagree. Women organising for their rights are a challenge to the system of divided labour, a system which is against all workers’ interests.
The Militant tendency in particular thinks positive action is a substitute for class action through the trade unions and Labour Party. They argue that such demands divide the working class. But the working class is already divided. Women and ethnic minorities are the most exploited section of the workforce. They are constantly dragged in and out of the workforce depending on the state of the economy.
Positive action demands challenge this. They challenge the role of women as areserve army of labour for capital and assert the right of women to a permanent place in the workforce. This benefits all workers since full employment cannot be achieved while women remain a reserve army of labour.
Positive action increases women’s status in the job market and within the trade unions. It gives us more bargaining power. This doubles the strength of the trade union movement as a whole. In some industries in the States the inclusion of women in male dominated areas has acted as an impetus to fight 23
[page 24]
for better safety and better training facilities for example, for all workers.
Positive action challenges the notion that it is women’s biology that prevents her from achieving full equality. This is a Tory and reactionary argument and women have proved they are quite capable of doing any joba man can do.
When women decided they have had enough, when they start to fight back who do they really challenge? It’s the bosses who don’t want to pay better rates, it’s the bosses who don’t want full employment. Action for goals and targets to force the employers or the government to hire women, demands that they pay. If an employer claims that there is a job shortage and that this agreement must be at the expense of other workers then the trade union movement should fight to defend those jobs — not ask women to pay.
These so-called socialists seem to be asking women to keep their demands quiet in order to keep the jobs for men. Women at the Hoover factory in Merthyr Tydfil refused to do this and in fighting discrimination in redundnacy and for women to be allowed into the skilled grades they managed at the end of the day to save all the jobs in the plant — the men’s and the women’s.
It is argued that by raising positive action we will ‘reinforce all the worst prejudices of the politically backward male workers’. Presumably we should not challenge these as socialists, but pander to them and allow the working class to divide itself?
What is really being said is that it is divisive for women to fight for their rights at all. We women can’t win — when we don't fight we're blamed for apathy and when we do we're being divisive! Socialist Challenge and Revolution fight to build a women’s movement linking up with and as part of the labour movement as a whole.
It is the bureaucracy of the trade union movement who argue that such demands on positive action are divisive because they have already accepted the share of the cake offered by the bosses. Well, women and male workers alike want the whole bakery. Positive action demands a greater share. In the course of this struggle for measures in women’s interests it will become clear whose side the bureaucratic trade union leaders are on. This will lead toa real involvement of workers fighting for a new leadership which acts in all our interests — instead of trying to divide us.
But socialists also put forward other demands to beat the unemployment scandal. We demand Jobs not Bombs. It’s a scandal that billions of pounds are wasted on Trident and Cruise missiles, weapons which will see an end to us all.
We fight for a Labour government committed to socialist policies — for a 30 hour week with job sharing. Only such national solutions can challenge the anarchy of the bosses’ system. Demands around positive action are seen in this conext. Fighting discrimination means fighting for unity of the working class to achieve all our goals. It is only the bosses and the bureaucratic misleaders of the class that thrive on divisions.
Socialist Challenge and Revolution Youth in this country are fighting to build a real alternative within the Labour Party and the trade unions — one which defends ali workers. We are campaigning for the Labour Party to agree to changes in the law for women’s rights and for the women’s movement and the labour movement as a whole to fight for this. We have many supporters in industry fighting for women’s rights.
We are fighting to construct a revolutionary socialist party in Britain and world wide which will really fight to challenge the bosses’ system which keeps us all — men, women, black and white in chains — come and join usin this fight. 24
[page 25]
APPENDICES Appendix 1
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES TUC SUGGESTIONS FOR POSITIVE ACTION
(a) Publicly a union should press an employer to commit himself to being an Equal Opportunities employer. This could involve insisting on the TUC Equal Opportunities clause in all agreements, and the employer informing the local job centre of his policy, giving the local press the information in the form of an article or letter, and most important of all, including an appropriate statement on all job adverts both internal and external. (b) Evaluation schemes that decide the grading of the job should be based on the level of skill, training and responsibility needed and not on differentials between male and female ‘skills’, eg. is it more skilful to be able to solder intricately or to lift heavy boxes? (c) Ensuring that the job description is an exact description of the duties of the job and does not imply sex stereotyping, eg. does a receptionist have to he ‘attractive’ or a sales representative ‘active executive type’? The job description should be drawn up after research into the what the jobs require, not based on assumptions such as all fork-lift drivers carry heavy weights. (d) As with job evaluation schemes and joh description, criteria for promotion should be laid down enumerating the skills that need to be developed, such things as formal qualifications should be looked at carefully, in terms of their necessity, their desirability or whether they could be gained after promotion. (e) Actions in the recruitment stage should include making adverts attractive and available to women, by the use of the EOC; including a picture of a woman as well as a manin the advert; making sure the wording does not put off women (a reintroduction of the use of male or female wanted might be a positive encouragement); advertising in women’s magazines (though to do so exclusively is discriminatory); contacting local women’s groups, school teachers and careers officers dealing with girls to inform them of the vacancy; ensuring all vacancies are advertised internally and to all people, and oe use of an employment noticeboard to display vacancies. (f) Personne] staff, including receptionists, should be made aware of the implications of an equal opportunities (EO) policy, and have available a full job description, so that women seeking jobs are not put off when making their initial approach. (g) Atthe interviewing stage, the application form should declare the employer has an EO policy and state any relevant grievance procedure. It should also only ask questions relevant to the job applied for and not ask unnecessary personal details. — ina large concern more than one interviewer should be used, preferably with a mix of sexes. — interviewers should be trained in interview and assessment techniques to eliminate unconscious bias. — it should be agreed previously what skills the interviewers are looking for, there should be an interview report form to ensure a common standard, and discussion afterwards between interviewers. — any testing process should be job-related, and have a direct correlation between test and job performance; for instance, is the mechanical comprehension test used truly indicative of future performance? — questions should be aimed at assessing the person's skills and abilities, and not include questions which are only put to women on home circumstances, future plans, etc. 25
—_ = = ™ — 7 4 =
[page 26]
— itis good employment practice to explain why a person did not get the job, and what improvements would make them acceptable. This enables the person to understand and assess their performance at interviews, and ensures the interviewers are fair. (h) In promotion, the advertised commitment to an EO policy is most important, and should be made by the chief executive, — all promotions should be circulated internally; the use of an employment noticeboard as a focal point would be an advantage. — these vacancy notices should include job description and candidate requirements, not just job titles, and should be checked for indirect discriminations such as a requirement to continuous service. — the possibility of part-time promotions should be investigated. — an annual review system should be used to discuss with staff their progress and future plans in employment terms, and any training or job opportunities that might benefit them. — seminars should be held for supervisory staff on how to evaluate personnel performance free of discrimination. — staff suitably qualified for promotion should be personally alerted to the vacancy. — all staff should be encouraged to take training courses that will help in their promotion prospects. — in service seminars, courses and discussions on issues relevant to management development should be held. These should be non-residential, wherever possible, and in working hours. — the same criteria used for a recruitment interview should be used for a promo- - tion interviews. — the creation of recognised grievance procedures should be established preferably in the form of a committee with management and workers represented. (j) The working conditions should be examined to see if they could be made more attractive to women. For instance, the provision of creches or paying for places in a local nursery where local authority provisions do not meet the needs. — extensive use of flexible working time, flexible holiday times and the right to carry over leave from one year to the next. — the improvement of maternity provisions to allow more flexibility than the statutory requirements."’
Appendix 2 Legislation and Public Policy
34. Although the General Council decided that the TUC positive action programme should not rely primarily on legal enforcement, there are a number of steps that can be taken making use of a legal framework, and a number of amendments to legislation that will be needed, to make positive action effective. 35. Trade unions should make sure that their negotiators and officials are fully aware of all the legal provisions for obtaining equal treatment for women and how to make use of these provisions. The General Council, affiliated unions and individual trade unionists should press for more use to be made of sections 47 and 48 of the SDA which allows for positive action in training and related areas. Trade unionists should campaign to get these clauses more widely used, and make sure that their emplovers know of their existence. 36. The General Council, individual unions and trade unions should continue to campaign for a strengthening of the Equal Pay Acy and the Sex Discrimination Act so that the positive action clauses are extended. The Act must recognise more explicitly that women suffer from past discrimination and that compensatory measures to reverse this are lawful. This could include an amendment to enable emplovers to be designated as able to positivley discriminate in favour of women at the point of recruitment. Such an amendment could be applicable for a limited timespan and 26
[page 27]
operate in the same way as the present provision for eductional establishments. 37. The TUC is to investigate the possibility, after consultation with other bodies, of drawing up a scheme for statutory application to employers and others who fail to demonstrate that within a reasonable period and on a continuing basis year by year, they have taken adequate steps voluntarily to eliminate the practice of job segregation by sex and the past effects of the practice. 38. Pressure should be placed upon statutory bodies such as the Manpower Services vices Commission and Industrial Training Boards to increase the training opportunities available to women, including women-only courses, bridging courses and part-time courses. 39. The General Council will continue to press for a substantial increase in resources allocated to education, a strengthening of the legal requirements upon local authorities to provide childcare facilities, a strengthening of maternity and paternity rights, and an increase in the amount of maternity benefits available. Trade unions in conjunction with local authorities could organise a local survey of the needs of working women with family responsibility with an aim to providing facilities which will enable them to combine more readily work with family responsibilities and enable fathers to participate more in care of their children. 40, The Tax and Social Security Benefit Laws should be amended to end any discrimination against women and particularly against married women workers. 41. The General Council will review the TUC Women’s Charters and the Model Clause on Equal Opportunities in the light of the above proposals.
Conclusions 42. This annex sets out why there isa need fora new initiative on equal opportunities and the General Council's recommendations for that new initiative, a positive action policy based mainly on a programme to be included in collective bargaining agreements but backed by a campaign to broaden the scope of legal provisions. The recommendations cover proposals for action that can be undertaken immediately or at appropriate times in the future and unions should draw up their priorities accordingly. 43. Finally, it must be recognised that implementing all the existing TUC policies and pursuing al! the steps to positive action outlined in this annex will not change the position of women to one of complete equality, unless it is recognised that family responsibility should be jointly shared and al] collective bargaining agreements, work practices and legislation be aimed at enabling this to happen, and unless all trade unionists work with determination towards this end.
Appendix 3
Extract from ‘A guide to the Sex Discrimination Act. Section 47.48 Positive action 7.10 The Act does not permit ‘reverse discrimination’: for example, it is unlawful to discriminate in favour of women in recruitment or promotion on the grounds that women have in the past suffered from adverse discrimination and should be given the chance to ‘catch up’. However, the Act does permit certain forms of positive action, as explained in the following paragraphs.
By training bodies 7.11 The training bodies which may take advantage of the provisions permitting positive action are the Manpower Services Commission, the Training Services Agency, the Employment Service Agency and industrial training hoards; other bodies may also take advantage of the provisions, but only if they have been specifically designated for the purpose by an order made by or on behalf of the Secretary of State. S 47(4). 27
[page 28]
7.12 Where it appears to one of these training bodies that at any time within the preceding 12 months there were no members of one sex engaged in particular work in Great Britain, or that the number of persons of that sex engaged in such work was comparatively small, it is lawful for that body to discriminate in or in connection with limiting access to training for such work to that sex, or to take steps to encourage members of that sex to take advantage of opportunities for doing that work. S 47(1)
7.13 Where in the view of a training body the test for particular work being done by no, or comparatively few, members of one sex at any time within the previous 12 months is met for a particular area within Great Britain, although not for Great Britain as a whole, the training body may lawfully discriminate in relation to affording members of the minority sex who appear likely to take up that work in that area access to facilities for relevant training, or encouraging persons of that sex to take advantage of opportunities in the area for doing that work. S 47(2)
7.14 Nothing in the Act makes unlawful any discriminatory act done by one of the eligible training bodies in or in connekction with affording access to training to people who in the view of the training body are in special need of it because of the period for which they have been discharging domestic or family responsibilities to the exclusion of regular full-time employment (for example, married women who have given up work to bring up a family and now wish to return). 5S 47(3)
7.15 Training bodies which must be specifically designated in order to be eligible to claim the positive action exceptions may be designated in respect of ‘minority sex’ training only, or in respect of training of people returning to work only, or both. S 47(A4)
By employers 7.16 Where particular work for an employer is done exclusively by men (or women), or the number of persons of one sex (the ‘minority sex’) doing that work is small compared to those of the other sex doing it (or if this has been the case at some time during the previous 12 months), it is lawful for an employer to provide access to facilities for training for that work to his employees of the minority sex only, and he may also lawfully take steps to encourage members of the minority sex to take advantage of opportunities for doing that work. This exception does not, however, make it lawful for the employer to discriminate at the point of selection for such work in order to achieve a balance between the sexes. S 48(1)
By trade unions, employers’ organisations, etc. 7.17 There are a number of exceptions which allow an organisation of the kind described in paragraph 3.21 (i.e. a trade union, an employers’ and professional organisation, etc.) to take positive action to ensure that members of both sexes are fully represented at various levels in the organisation.
7.18 Where at any time over the previous 12 months no persons, or only comparatively few persons, of one sex have been members of an organisation of the kind described in paragraph 3.21, special action by the organisation to encourage persons of that sex to become members is not unlawful. S 48(3)
7.19 Where no member, or only comparatively few members, of one sex have helda post of any kind in the organisation at any time during the previous 12 months, any action by the organisation to encouarge members of the minority sex to take advantage of opportunities for holding such posts, or to afford members of that sex only access to facilities for training which will help to fit them for holding such posts, would not be unawful. This enables a ‘trade union, for example, most of whose shop stewards are men, to run campaigns or courses directed at encouraging its women members to become shop stewards, or providing women members only with the necessary skills to undertake such work. However, it would not enable the union to discriminate in favour of women when actually appointing shop stewards, or to reserve a certain proportion of such posts for women. 5 48(2) 28
[page 29]
Appendix 4
TUC motion 1981 Congress view with alarm the appalling rise in women’s unemployment, which is increasing at a faster rate than men’s. Congress is concerned that, as unemployment continues to rise, unacceptable pressure is now being exerted on women to withdraw from the labour market.
Congress recognises that this pressure is based on the out-dated concept of the ‘family-wage’. In many families women are the sole breadwinners and in many others the women’s earnings are as important an element in the family’s income as the man’s.
Congress reaffirms that the only way to ensure proper support for all f amilies is to increase child benefit substantially and to ensure that men and women have a genuinely equal right to work with equal pay.
Congress is also dismayed at the recent Government suggestion that the practice of compulsory registration may be abandoned, thus further masking the true level of unemployment which is already far higher than official figures, since many women and part-time workers do not register as unemployed.
Congress welcomes the TUC alternative economic strategy and the TUC plan for employment as the only basis for overcoming both our short — and longer — term difficulties. However, Congress recognises that girls and women have been underrepresented in previous training and employment programmes and calls on the General Council to give particular attention to identifying and opposing any barriers to the participation of girls and women in present or future programmes so that they have the maximum opportunity to benefit proportionately from them.
Congress asserts that women, as well as men, have a fundamental right to work and that their interests can only be protected through trade union membership.
However, it recognises that new strategies are needed to encourage women to join and actively participate in trade unions. Congress therefore instructs the General Council to carry out the following: (i) conduct a nationwise campaign in consultation with affiliated unions to recruit women into the trade union movement; (ii) encourage affiliated unions to implement the TUC Charter for Equality of Women in Trade Unions and the recommendations for positive action; (iii) campaign to protect the right to work for women workers, including part-time workers, as an integral part. of the Campaign of Economic and Social Advance; (iv) ensure that all TUC services, and especially the education services in individual unions, are organised so as to maximise the attendance and involvement of women members of trade unions; and (v) publish a report to the 1982 Congress on the campaign and the progress achiev-
2 SS
‘eS ae Cath Jackson/NCCL
[page 30]
Appendix 5
~ EQUALITY FOR WOMEN WITHIN TRADE UNIONS
The National Executive Committee Efforts should be made to include in collective agreements of the union should publicly declare to all its members the provision for time off without commitment of the union to loss of pay to attend branch involving women members in the meetings during working hours activities of the union at all levels. where that is practicable. yi 4 The structure of the union should Where it is not practicable to 7 hold meetings during working be examined to see whether it hours every effort should be prevents women from reaching made to provide child-care the decision-making bodies. facilities for use by either parent. 3 Where there are large women’s Child-care facilities, for use by & memberships but no women on either parent, should be the decision-making bodies special provided at all district, divisional provision should be made to and regional meetings and ensure that womens views are particularly at the union's represented, either through the annual conference, and for creation of additional seats or by training courses organised by co-option. the union. 4 The National Executive Committee Although it may be open to any of each union should consider the members of either sex to go to desirability of setting up advisory union training courses, special committees within its encouragement should be given constitutional machinery to to women to attend. ensure that the special interests of its women members are The content of journals and 10 protected. other union publications should be presented in non-sexist Similar committees at regional, terms. divisional, and district level could also assist by encouraging the active involvement of women in the general activities of the union.
[page 31]
Bibliography
Low Pay Unit Equal Opportunities Commission Minimum wages for women, an ex- Equality between the sexes in industry amination of women’s earnings in in- March 1980 dustries covered by wages councils E.0.C., Overseas House, Quay St,- September 1980 Manchester M3 3HN
Manpower Services Commission Equal Opportunties Commission Special programmes; special needs Fourth Annual report November 1979 July 1980 M.S.C., Selkirk House, 166 High Holborn, London WC1 Equal Opportunities Commission Sex discrimination: a guide to the Act National Council for Civil Liberties reprint 1978 NCCL Positive Action project NCCL, 186 Kings Cross Rd., London Equal Opportunities Commission wel Health and safety legislation: should we distinguish between men and Rose, Andy WOMEN The Weber Case, new threat to affir- March 1979 mative action NY, Pathfinder Press, 1979 Hewitt, Patricia (covers USA. Available from Other Rights for women Bookshop, 329 Upper St., London N1.) (covers the SDA, the EPA, unfair dismissal and redundancy, pension Transport and General Workers Union schemes, paid maternity leave)
T&GWU Women’s Handbook July 1980 Hunt, J & Adams, 5. al T&GWU, Transport House, Smith Sq., Women, work and trade union London SW1 organisation W.E.A. Studies for Trade Unionists, TUC March 1980 TUC discussion document on positive action IRS November 1980 Industrial relations review and report TUC, Congress House, Gt. Russell St., W.E.A. Studies for Trade Unionists, London WCl1 March 1980
TUC IRS Report of TUC Women’s Advisory Com- Industrial relations review and report mittee 1979-1980. February 1978, July 1980 Submitted at 50th TUC Women’s Con- IRS, 67 Maygrove Rd., London NW6 ference March 1980 Jennes, Linda et.al. Affirmative action v. seniority Pathfinder Press, 410 West St., New York 10014
[page 32]
USEFUL ADDRESSES.
Equal Opportunities Commission Overseas House, Quay Street, Manchester M3 3HN.
Trades Union Congress (T.U.C.) Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WCIB 3LS.
Low Pay Unit 9 Poland Street, London W1V 3DG.
Labour Party 150 Walworth Road, London SE1.
National Council for Civil Liberties Rights for Women, 186 Kings Cross Road, London WCl.
Rights of Women (R.0.W.) 374 Grays Inn Road, London WCl.
Spare Rib 27 Clerkenwell Close, London ECIR OAT.
Women and Manual Trades Group 40 Dale Street, London W4.
32
[page 33]
sine SUBSCRIBE TO SOCIALIST CHALLENGE
For new readers we are offering TEN ISSUES of Socialist Challenge for the incredibly low price of £2 (real value £3.15!)
Complete the form below and rush your order to:
Socialist Challenge, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP.
Cheques and POs payable to ‘Socialist Challenge’.
6 months - £7 10 issues for £2 only.
Overseas: 12 months — Surface mail & Europe air mail £17.
Other air mail £24.
SUBSCRIBE TO REVOLUTION
Subscribe to REVOLUTION — the best way of finding out about the antimissile movement, the fightback against the Tories, for a campaigning and democratic LPYS, and the struggles of youth all over the world.
Send £3.50 for a year's subscription (at eye gq: iii i least 9 issues) or £1.75 for six months (5 HAG fi] ff ine ¥F fri i I } Fi #7 i € iil He 4 in z i issues). HI saift fF is df s i , ps fe i | i fl é; Ld hay! i fit, i? # ij fis af # i i ils i fj Pp il f if iy iy ith ih stk Send in this completed form with your ii I hy fT wal Hf) ei fg ii F money to: REVOLUTION (D), PO Box i f ih fig | if c tH i Bick it : ay i i, bond if 50, London N1 2XP. # iy ff F i ? i, spl fF f i
Write for international rates.
[page 34]