Britain failing on equality

Louise Nousratpour, Equalities Reporter
Thursday December 2, 2010
The Morning Star

Britain is the fourth-worst country when it comes to parenting leave, the gender pay gap and other equality issues, according to a new study released today by the Fatherhood Institute.

Sweden and Finland shared the first spot of the 21-nation family friendly league table, with only Switzerland, Austria and Japan faring worse than Britain.

Men in Sweden can get up to 40 weeks full-time paid paternity leave. In Britain paternity leave is two weeks at a maximum weekly rate of £124.88. The institute said this was the same as getting two days leave on full pay.

The Fairness in Families Index - the first of its kind - also found that there was a 21 per cent gap between the average earnings of men and women in Britain, compared with 9.3 per cent in table-topping Belgium.

Fatherhood Institute chief executive Rob Williams said families in Britain were getting a raw deal on paid parenting leave, time spent caring for children and equal pay.

Mr Williams said: "Parents' choices are restricted by an outdated distinction between fathers as breadwinners and mothers as home-makers.

"We need to establish a better framework in the UK to support equal earning and caring. Much more needs to be done to make families fairer and getting the paternity leave system right is a good place to start."

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis warned that things would get worse under the Con-Dems' plans to cut child benefit and water down equality laws, including proposals to abandon legislation designed to close the gender pay gap.

"The government fails the fairness test and is stripping down its commitment to equality," he said.

"We need more support and choice for working parents, with workplaces that understand that families share parenting and that many women are the breadwinners."

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said it was "disappointing" to see that workplaces were still failing families.

"Evidence shows that close parental involvement benefits a child's development but we need a far more father-friendly working culture, with more shared leave and flexible working, to make this possible for dads today," he said.

"The UK cannot afford to lag behind our Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development competitors on such an important issue."

louise@peoples-press.com