The STUC Women’s
Committee has campaigned for years for family friendly workplaces. We all know the
crucial role carers in Scotland play in the labour force. The majority of
these carers are women so it’s a subject that is very dear to the hearts of the
women we represent.
Despite the legislation there are still very few employers embracing the
principle of family friendly working. Too many simply pay lip service to it
whilst actively discouraging flexible working requests and providing a variety
of spurious reasons to decline them.
This affects our performance in the workplace, the opportunities
available to us for promotion, our health and wellbeing and most of all our
family life. That’s why it’s one of the many topics we’ll be debating at the
STUC Women’s Conference in Perth at the end of October.
We are therefore delighted to be working with
Family Friendly Working Scotland (FFWS) on tackling the many barriers women in
particular face in the pursuit of a work-life balance.
Family Friendly Working Scotland was set up in
2014 with funding and support from the Scottish Government. As part of National
Work Life Week, FFWS are holding a conference in Glasgow on Thursday 6 October
which the STUC Women’s Committee fully supports. I will be attending with a
colleague from the Women’s Committee, Joyce Stephenson from CWU.
The event is an opportunity to discuss the many different aspects of
family friendly working and the benefits they bring. It also covers practical
ideas for employers to take this forward in their organisations, how the
different policies work in practice and how FFWS can help support employers to
make Scotland a family friendly place to work.
The STUC Women’s
Committee and FFWS aim to follow this up with a joint event which looks at flexible working approaches for non-standard
working patterns. We will keep you updated on how this is progressing and hope
that as many trade union women as possible can attend this event.
Fiona
Steele
Deputy
General Secretary
Aegis
the Union
