Anti-strike bill discriminates against women, say campaigners

theguardian.com:

Feminist campaign groups have raised the alarm about the government’s anti-strike bill, which will enforce minimum service levels, saying women’s rights will be disproportionately affected by the restrictions.

In a letter to the equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, a coalition of four organisations as well as the TUC said that public services with a predominantly female workforce including health and education would have their rights affected by the bill.

The bill, which is expected in the House of Lords on Tuesday, would give the business secretary the powers to make regulations over minimum levels of service and employers would consult unions on what that means in practice.

Staff who breach minimum service levels will lose employment protections and could be sacked, a change unions have said breaches fundamental rights. The letter is signed by the Fawcett Society, Pregnant Then Screwed, the Equality Trust, the Women’s Budget Group and the TUC.

“This draconian legislation will mean that when workers democratically and lawfully vote to strike across a range of sectors – including health and education which have a predominantly female workforce – they can be forced to work and sacked if they don’t comply,” the letter said.

It says that the teaching workforce is 75% women, with 89% of support staff women. In the NHS, 77% of the workforce are women and 82% are women in social care. Other sectors that will be affected include transport, where just 20% of the workforce are women, and the fire service where just 18% are women.

“In an already-challenging labour market rife with discrimination, the last thing working women need is to be threatened with the sack for exercising their democratic right to strike and for trying to defend