Blog
COVID-19 has put health and safety at the heart of fair work, but women’s needs remain under-researched, under-reported and under-compensated
COVID-19 has brought new emphasis to the danger of occupational exposure to disease and injury, leading to increasing focus on health and safety concerns within the context of fair work. These concerns are particularly important for women who account for the majority of key workers, meaning they have greater exposure to the virus in the workplace.
Figures from the HSE covering the period of April to September 2020 found that 75% of employer COVID-19 disease reports made in Scotland related to a female employee. Evidence also shows that women aged 50-60 are at greatest risk of long-COVID and women were twice as likely as men to suffer from COVID symptoms that lasted longer than a month. Many women, therefore, will be struggling to return to work due to the effects of Long-COVID.
Women account for 98% of key workers earning “poverty wages”. Many women with greater exposure to the virus and increased likelihood of long-COVID are therefore less likely to have savings to fall back on. It is therefore pivotal that these women are able to access industrial injury benefit to prevent them, and their families, falling into further and deeper poverty.
However, the current system of employment injuries assistance (EIA) does not deliver for women in the labour market. Women account for only 16% of those claiming Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) and only 13.5% of all new claims to the benefit in the ten years up to December 2019 were made by women.
Mark Griffin MSP’s proposed Scottish Employment Injuries Advisory Council Bill is therefore a critical, and timely, intervention. The Bill aims to establish an advisory council on workplace injuries and diseases to scrutinise social security legislation in the realm of EIA and commission research into new employment hazards and entitlements. The consultation document establishes that a key priority for change should be research into women’s experiences of industrial injury and the development of new mechanisms and definitions which improve women’s access to industrial injury benefit.
The modernisation of the EIA system and increased focus on women’s health and safety is long-overdue. Women’s experience of injury and disease are routinely ignored in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) design. A recent TUC survey found that 57% of women found that their PPE sometimes or significantly hampered their work and only 29% of women said that the PPE they use is specifically designed for women, meaning that it is not fit for purpose. This is a significant health and safety issue, as the wrong PPE can increase risk from injury or disease. For instance, ill-fitting gloves can lead to problems gripping, while the wrong shoes or overalls can increase the chances of tripping. Despite this heightened risk of injury and disease, the EIA does not respond to women’s needs.
Issues around a lack of appropriate PPE have been further highlighted during the pandemic. The Royal College of Nursing have raised particular concerns around access to PPE for staff working outside of a hospital environment, and there have been widely reported concerns around access to PPE for social care staff, 85% of whom are women. Inappropriate PPE can leave woman further exposed to COVID-19, posing a severe risk to the safety of women workers and their families.
A lack of research into women’s health and safety means that many female-dominated jobs and sectors, and certain conditions predominantly experienced by women, continue to be absent from the list-based system which determines compensation eligibility under the current scheme. The prescribed list is focused on the injuries and illnesses most associated with male-dominated jobs and sectors, such as construction, and neglects those risks associated with low-paid, female-dominated sectors such as cleaning and care. Examples of diseases and injuries commonly experienced by women which are not considered by the current scheme include MSDs through lifting, breast cancer caused by shift work, and asbestos related ovarian cancer.
Women still typically have the dual burden of household work and caring responsibilities which exposes women to the similar hazards at home they experience at work, increasing the likelihood of injury. However, the mechanisms for accounting for this unpaid work are insufficient in the current scheme which ultimately does not recognise the realities of women’s lives. The factors which complicate the process of establishing eligibility, including women’s propensity to work multiple jobs and to have career breaks in order to care for children, create a further barrier to women’s access to support.
Overall, it is clear why the TUC have concluded that less attention has been given to the health and safety needs of women. Research and developments in health and safety regulation, policy and risk management are primarily based on work traditionally done by men. By contrast, women’s occupational injuries and illnesses have been largely ignored, under-diagnosed, under-reported and under-compensated.
The modernisation of EIA and improvements to the system are long overdue, and reform is now a matter of urgency due to the workplace implications of COVID-19. Female workers face significant challenges in receiving support through the current system which is ultimately unfit for purpose. This adds to the undervaluation of “women’s work”, with a lack of recognition afforded to the risks and skills associated with women’s work. The current approach to IIDB takes the male worker as standard, leading to a system which has neglected women’s health and safety requirements and erected barriers to compensation.
You can read our full submission to the consultation on the Scottish Employment Injuries Advisory Council Bill here.
Gender equality can help employers to weather the Covid-19 storm
Women’s employment has been hit hard by Covid-19 and it is highly likely that there may be a loss of female talent in the workplace if employers don’t act to support their female staff. This could drive up costs, including recruitment, training and the loss of experienced staff.
We've developed new guidance for large companies, alongside guidance for SME employers, on supporting women in the workforce during Covid-19. The Close Your Pay Gap guidance for large employers can be downloaded here. Our Think Business, Think Equality guidance for SMEs can be downloaded here.
Both contain practical and easy-to-implement actions that employers can take to ensure their employment practices and return to work plans are gender-proofed. Line managers have a huge role to play in supporting employees and this guidance will help them to understand and respond to the specific experiences of women workers during the pandemic.
A recovery that works for women works for employers
Supporting women at work doesn’t just benefit women - it benefits employers too. The business benefits of gender equality are well-evidenced, driving improved business performance and economic growth. In the run up to the April 2021 gender pay gap reporting deadline companies may not realise the potential for Covid-19 to widen their pay gap. Our new guidance provides good practice actions that employers can take now to help prevent this happening and even close their pay gap in the process.
Supporting women workers will also help support the resilience, recovery and regrowth of companies and businesses across Scotland. This benefits all of us.
The Gender Pay Gap Manifesto: the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections are an opportunity to realise fair work for women
Close the Gap have now published our manifesto for the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. The Gender Pay Gap manifesto outlines 14 policies that should be adopted over the next parliamentary term to address the gender pay gap and realise fair work for women. In line with the multiple causes of the gender pay gap, the policy priorities cover early learning and childcare, automation, the public sector equality duty, employment practice, occupational segregation, low pay, skills policy, tackling the undervaluation of “women’s work” and economic development.
The focus on the gender pay gap in the Scottish Parliament has never been sharper, yet we are still very far from meaningful progress on the inter-related barriers women face in entering and progressing in employment. Fair work has also been established as a key policy focus for all parties represented in the Scottish Parliament, but fair work has to mean fair work for women as well.
It is often repeated that as employment law is not devolved to Scotland, it is
not possible for the Scottish Parliament to address the causes of Scotland’s
gender pay gap. Our manifesto highlights that this is untrue. The majority of
the causes of the gender pay gap are not unlawful, and therefore sit outside of
the scope of employment law. Instead, action is required in a number of policy
areas over which the Scottish Parliament has the power to enact change now. Some
of Close the Gap’s key policy calls include:
- Designate childcare a key growth sector, along with social care, to recognise care as vital infrastructure.
- Ensure action to address the undervaluation of “women’s work”, including in adult social care and childcare, is core to labour market and economic recovery policymaking in response to COVID-19.
- Support the employer accreditation programme Equally Safe at Work through continued funding.
- Deliver a further extended funded childcare entitlement equivalent to 50 hours a week to enable women to work full-time.
- Recognising the link between women’s poverty and child poverty, prioritise substantive action to tackle women’s low pay in addressing child poverty.
Taking substantive action on women’s labour market inequality will enable the Scottish Parliament to realise the ambitions of fair work and inclusive growth. Women’s inequality in the labour market is a drag on economic growth and productivity, and occupational segregation is correlated with sector skills shortages. Research by Close the Gap has highlighted that closing the gender gap in employment is worth £17 billion to the Scottish economy.
Transformational change is needed to close the pay gap, and it is time for meaningful, and substantive action on the causes of the gender pay gap in Scotland. Across the political parties, there was a lack of specific policies relating to the gender pay gap in the manifestos for the 2016 Scottish Parliament election and there were also very few policy commitments on gender equality.
The 2021 Scottish Parliament elections present an opportunity for political parties to show leadership on gender equality and take the bold action that is needed to realise fair work for women. Action on women’s labour market inequality has been rendered even more pivotal by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The social, economic and labour market impacts of COVID-19 have the potential to reverse gender equality gains and exacerbate women’s pre-existing inequality. We think it is time for cross-party support for closing the gender pay gap in Scotland.
Over the next few weeks, we will be highlighting our specific policy asks over on our social media. In the build-up to the election in May, we will also be continuing to work with political parties and MSPs to encourage support for these policy asks.
You can read the full manifesto here.
16 days of activism: Recognising the impact of Covid-19 on women’s experience of gender-based violence.
This week marks the beginning of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. The campaign starts on the 25th of November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The focus of this year’s campaign is the impact Covid-19 has had on women’s experience of gender-based violence. The theme places a strong emphasis on prevention, ensuring essential services for victim-survivors and greater data collection to improve services for victim-survivors.
Violence against women (VAW) occurs at alarmingly high rates and impacts all aspects of women’s lives. In the beginning months of the pandemic, self-isolation and social distancing measures led to increased risks for victim-survivors of domestic abuse, essentially trapping them in unsafe situations with limited access to support and opportunities to leave. It’s important to understand that domestic abuse is not increasing due to Covid-19 but rather that existing abusive relationships are intensified during this period. Domestic abuse is not a one-off incident. It’s a pattern of controlling, coercive, threatening and/or violent behaviour that often includes physical, emotional, psychological and economic abuse.
With homeworking continuing to be prioritised by public health guidance and with the recent introduction of tier 4 restrictions for 11 local authorities, many victim-survivors may still be facing significant barriers in accessing support.
Covid-19 has highlighted the integral role of employers in supporting victim-survivors. For some women, work may be a safe space and a vital link for accessing support from colleagues or specialist services.
The significant changes to the workplace since the Covid-19 outbreak, including an increase in homeworking, employees working fewer hours, scaled back workforces and a reliance on digital platforms for communication, have affected the way women experience VAW. For example, digital platforms have been essential for enabling homeworking, but they have also provided perpetrators with greater access to women that wasn’t available before, for example, the ability to see when colleagues are online, or ability to send private messages or pictures constantly through the day. This has resulted in increased cases of cyberstalking and sexual harassment that have become inescapable at home.
This year’s 16 days of activism campaign is an opportunity to raise awareness of the significant barriers that victim-survivors face in doing their jobs effectively and accessing support. It’s also an opportunity to encourage employers to adapt workplace practices to better support victim-survivors. In many cases, line managers and colleagues may be the most consistent contact for victim-survivors and it’s essential that they’re aware of how to recognise the signs of VAW and initiate a conversation.
As part of Close the Gap’s Equally Safe at Work employer accreditation programme, we developed guidance on VAW, Work and Covid-19 for local authorities which outlines best practice for responding to and supporting employees disclosing or reporting VAW. Equally Safe at Work has enabled councils to develop a range of employment practices that support victim-survivors at work.
For this year’s 16 days campaign, we’re sharing the learning from Equally Safe at Work and are highlighting best practice tips for line managers in any organisation.
- If you have a VAW policy, raise awareness of your policy and what your organisation can do to support victim-survivors.
- During periods of lockdown, offer victim-survivors a key worker letter, where appropriate, to enable them to come into the office. This should be discussed with the victim-survivor and only provided if they want it.
- During periods of lockdown, ensure you remain in regular contact with all staff, including those on sick leave, through catch-ups or 1-2-1s.
- Familiarise yourself with the signs that an employee may be affected by a form VAW during Covid-19 (this can be found in the Equally Safe at Work guidance on VAW, Work and Covid-19).
- Initiate a conversation if you suspect an employee may be experiencing a form of VAW. Some victim-survivors may not want to disclose their experience, and this should be respected. To start the conversation, you may want to ask how they feel about changes in their work environment or ask if everything is alright at work or at home.
- Be supportive and non-judgemental if one of your team discloses.
- Go at the employee’s pace and if she’s finding it difficult to speak or is becoming distressed, suggest taking a break.
- Work with the employee to identify their support needs and the simple changes that can be made to support her.
- For employees affected by domestic abuse, stalking and/or so-called “honour-based” violence agree a safety plan in line with the staff member’s needs.
- For victim-survivors of domestic abuse, agree code words so they are able to communicate safely about their situation. This can be particularly important for employees who are homeworking and live with the abusive partner.
- Protect their confidentiality and communicate to them how you will do that.
- Discuss whether other workplace policies could be used to support them. This could include identifying whether staff would like to work flexibly, adjust work hours or workload, wherever necessary and possible.
- Organise regular meetings to check in and review their support needs.
- Signpost to local specialist services, such as Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis (You can find more links to support services here).
There is additional support available for SMEs through Close the Gap’s free online self-assessment tool, Think Business, Think Equality. Think Business, Think Equality enables businesses to assess their current employment practice and provides tailored advice and an action plan which supports SMEs to realise the benefits of gender equality. Think Business, Think Equality has guidance on how to support victim-survivors of domestic abuse during Covid-19. The guidance accompanies additional resources on domestic abuse which includes an FAQ on domestic abuse and work, good practice examples, and workplace resources.
Find out more by taking the Think Business, Think Equality test on domestic abuse at www.thinkbusinessthinkequality.org.uk.
Equal Pay Day 2020: Why it’s important to look beyond the headline figures
Equal Pay Day is the day from which women are effectively working for free for the rest of the year because of the gender pay gap. Of course it's much earlier in the year for Black and minority ethnic women and disabled women, who experience higher gender pay gaps.
New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that Scotland’s gender pay gap has narrowed from 13.3% to 10.4%. This ostensibly suggests that progress on women’s workplace equality has been made. However, evidence from elsewhere shows otherwise, as women’s employment has been disproportionately negatively affected by COVID-19 in a range of significant ways.
While the latest data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings shows a reduction in the gender pay gap, it comes with reliability warnings with a quarter of the usual sample of employer pay data missing and the impact of COVID-19 job disruption on this data remains unclear.
COVID-19 illuminates the challenges in accessing good quality gender-sensitive, sex-disaggregated labour market data. Intersectional labour market data remains almost entirely non-existent, which makes it extremely difficult to get a granular understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on different groups of women, and the effect on women’s and men’s labour market participation.
The data that is publicly available makes for a somewhat confusing picture. UK Government data relating to the Job Retention Scheme contains minimal gendered data, and the Scottish Government’s gendered data on job disruption is patchy at best. The data tells us that the picture on gender and furlough in Scotland is complicated, and constantly changing.
For example, the headline data shows that, overall, more male employees have been furloughed than female employees. However, since the 1st of July, more women have been furloughed than men across the UK which would imply that women have been furloughed for longer than men. The headline figures therefore mask the nuances of job disruption and furlough.
Moreover, ONS data shows a sharp increase in women working full-time. Compared to this time last year, 41,000 more women are working full-time which is likely to have a narrowing effect on the gender pay gap. By contrast, 27,000 fewer men are working full-time, and 11,000 more men are working part-time when compared with this time last year. The impact of changes in male working patterns on the gender pay gap will depend on whether more men are now earning lower part-time hourly rates, or merely working reduced hours on the same rate of hourly pay. This is unclear from the data. Regardless, men’s average hourly pay will also have been reduced as a result of furlough which will artificially deflate the overall gender pay gap figure temporarily.
The analysis which accompanies these data releases is not gendered, which not only creates an additional challenge in interpreting the data, but also serves to highlight the lack of gender analysis in labour market policymaking.
COVID-19 has had an unprecedented effect on the labour market, and women’s employment specifically, with the medium and long-term effects yet to be seen. This year’s gender pay gap underscores why it’s necessary to look beneath the headline figure. The reduction is very likely to be masking the relatively recent gendered effects of COVID-19 on women’s employment that will not yet be captured by the gender pay gap which is a lagging indicator.
Equal Pay Day once again highlights the importance of quality gender-sensitive, sex-disaggregated labour market data. In the coming weeks, Close the Gap will be publishing our annual analysis of gender pay gap statistics which will take a deeper dive into this year’s data. Meantime, you can read last year’s gender pay gap statistics paper here.
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