Responding ahead of the publication of the Employment Bill, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said:
“Without sick pay provision, nursing staff in social care choose between their own health and their much-needed income. The government’s plan to introduce statutory sick pay from day one is a crucial first step. Next, we need commitments to enhance the level of sick pay itself - and make that a right from the very start of employment too.
“Advancing women’s rights in the workplace must be central to the government’s Bill. Protections around workplace harassment, women’s health and flexible working could not be needed more.
“Care workers are at the intersection of an undervalued profession considered ‘women’s work’ and a sector that resembles a ‘Wild West’ of employment standards. We expect proper sectoral bargaining finally introduced for adult social care.
“The repeal of anti-union laws could pave the way for a new era in the business of industrial relations and trade unionism. These changes will give nursing staff greater power to organise, demand fair pay and improve working conditions. Female-dominated professions remain some of the worst paid, with inferior terms and conditions and this Bill is the important beginning to addressing that.”
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