\n<\/p>\n
A law proposed by Nigel Farage to \u201cstrengthen women\u2019s rights\u201d could cost female workers money by removing equal pay for work of equal value, unions have said.<\/p>\n
A proposal, made by Reform UK days before the Makerfield byelection, to introduce a \u201cwomen and motherhood protection act\u201d that it says will restore equality before the law has been described as \u201cshameless and deceptive\u201d.<\/p>\n
The new policy, which would supersede the 2010 Equality Act, is said by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to put in doubt the right for equal pay from jobs that are different but demand comparable levels of skill, effort and responsibility.<\/p>\n
There have been a number of payouts forced by the Equality Act. More than 3,500 workers at the clothes store Next won a six-year battle in 2024 when an employment tribunal said store staff, who are predominantly women, should not have been paid at lower rates than employees in warehouses, where just over half the staff are male. Next is appealing against the judgment.<\/p>\n
Under Reform UK\u2019s plan, Farage\u2019s party has suggested women\u2019s rights are better protected by laws made in the 1970s and 90s. It has said that the Equal Pay Act 1970 ensures that women and men receive the same pay for the same work and that the Employment Rights Act 1996 ensured rights to parental leave and protection against unfair dismissal.<\/p>\n
The party has said that, in addition, their new act will extend the time limit for pregnancy and maternity claims of unfair dismissal from three months to 12 months.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Reform UK\u2019s candidate in Makerfield, Rob Kenyon, has been accused of making offensive comments about women on social media.<\/span> Photograph: Oli Scarff\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n In a press release, which followed weeks of criticism of their candidate in Makerfield over alleged past comments about women, the party said a \u201cReform UK government will be the most pro-woman, pro-mother and pro-family government in modern British history\u201d.<\/p>\n The party added that \u201cwomen will retain the right to receive the same pay for the same work, while ensuring that equal pay law remains focused on genuine cases of pay discrimination rather than allowing courts and tribunals to determine the relative value of fundamentally different occupations\u201d.<\/p>\n With regard to its extension of the period for pregnancy and maternity claims of unfair dismissal, the party claimed that \u201cnew mothers should be focused on their child, not paperwork and no woman should lose her legal rights because she spent the first months of motherhood being a mum\u201d.<\/p>\n Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the TUC, said Reform had \u201cserious questions to answer\u201d on whether it would keep the principle of equal pay for work of equal value and described the comments around motherhood as patronising.<\/p>\n <\/span>The TUC general secretary, Paul Nowak, says the proposals from Reform are patronising.<\/span> Photograph: Jeff Moore\/PA<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s call this out for what it is \u2013 a smokescreen for slashing women\u2019s rights and making life harder for families,\u201d said Nowak. \u201cIt\u2019s shameless and deceptive.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Reform was really on the side of women, the party wouldn\u2019t have pledged to rip up the Equality Act, effectively legalising discrimination. They wouldn\u2019t have vowed to repeal new rights being introduced by the Employment Rights Act, like protection from harassment.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd they wouldn\u2019t have shrugged off blatant misogyny from their own candidate as just laddish banter. Equating women\u2019s success with motherhood is patronising, antiquated and plain wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cAll women \u2013 whether mums or not \u2013 are at risk from a Reform government that wants to turn the clock back. The party can never be trusted on women\u2019s rights.\u201d<\/p>\n Nowak said that it was \u201cgalling and offensive\u201d to ask women to be grateful for commitments to keep protections that have been around for half a century.<\/p>\n Nate Barber, a leading lawyer with Equal Pay Action, which represents thousands of shopfloor workers pursuing equal pay claims against the supermarkets Morrisons, Asda and Sainsbury\u2019s, said: \u201cAny proposal to scrap the Equality Act on day one should concern every worker in this country, particularly women.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is very little detail in Reform\u2019s proposed \u2019women and motherhood protection act\u2019. But the answer is not new legislation. The courts are already showing that existing equal pay laws can protect women, as the Next case showed.\u201d<\/p>\n Katharine Sacks-Jones, the chief executive at Young Women\u2019s Trust, said: \u201cWomen have fought hard for equality, and are still facing unequal pay today \u2013 we should be pushing for more progress, not left having to fight just to keep the hard-won, but still incomplete, rights we have.\u201d<\/p>\n Voters in Makerfield will go to the polls on Thursday with the electoral and prime ministerial aspirations of Andy Burnham being challenged by rival candidate Robert Kenyon, for Reform, who has been accused of making offensive comments about women on social media.<\/p>\n One account linked to Kenyon wrote that women can\u2019t \u201cref, drive or give directions\u201d and stated: \u201cI\u2019m sexist, sorry but I am.\u201d<\/p>\n Kenyon has also admitted to making \u201ccrass comments\u201d about the television presenter Carol Vorderman. Farage has downplayed the comments as \u201claddish pub talk\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A law proposed by Nigel Farage to \u201cstrengthen women\u2019s rights\u201d could cost female workers money by removing equal pay for work of equal value, unions have said. A proposal, made by Reform UK days before the Makerfield byelection, to introduce a \u201cwomen and motherhood protection act\u201d that it says will restore equality before the law<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[342,10680,4309,5966,2639,2062,1040,1436,124,10719,1438],"class_list":{"0":"post-50405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-cost","9":"tag-equal","10":"tag-farages","11":"tag-female","12":"tag-legislation","13":"tag-money","14":"tag-pay","15":"tag-plan","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-unions","18":"tag-workers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}