Commenting after the passing of motion 33 at NEU Annual Conference, Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“With a predominantly female workforce, the education sector has to uphold and improve women’s pregnancy and maternity rights. Women teachers and support staff report having to fight for their rights at work, leaving them feeling angry, fearful and isolated. Women have to return to work early because they struggle to live on meagre maternity pay; or 5leave education because they can’t secure flexible part time work.
“Under the badge Maternity Matters, we are developing resources and, with Maternity Action, calls to action, around five themes - pregnancy at work; pregnancy loss and termination; maternity leave and pay; returning to work and flexible working; and breastfeeding at work - to empower our members to assert their rights at work.
“Poor maternity pay, excessive workload, an absence of return-to-work induction and a lack of flexible working for new mothers drives valuable women out of education and towards sectors that accommodate their needs rather than penalising them – ironically – for having children.
“Pregnant women and new mothers face discrimination and harassment at work on grounds of sex, pregnancy and maternity. Furthermore, many Black mothers will not receive appropriate individualised or culturally sensitive maternity care outside of work (1); maternal mortality is currently almost four times higher for Black women than for white women, significant disparities exist for women of Asian and mixed ethnicity (2); and research shows Black women have a 43% higher risk of miscarriage than white women. The Government must commit the investment needed by school and college leaders and employers to improve safety and dignity for pregnant women in the workplace, embrace flexible working, and prevent avoidable depletion of valuable teachers and support staff”.
Editor’s Note
2. MBRRACE-UK, Saving Lives, Improving Mothers’ Care: Lessons learned to inform maternity care from the UK and Ireland Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity 2018–20 (November 2022), p 13