Reforms proposes "Women and Motherhood Protection Act"

[IwantToRetire]

Reform UK has announced plans to become the most pro-family government in British history, with its Women and Motherhood Protection Act.

The Act would bring together key protections currently scattered across different laws, including equal pay, sex discrimination, employment rights, unfair dismissal and maternity leave. Consolidating these in one clear legal framework will give women, mothers and families stronger protections under the law.

Reform UK believes that mothers should be celebrated and protected, not punished for bringing the next generation into the world.

That is why a Reform UK government would increase the time limit for pregnancy and maternity discrimination claims from three months to 12 months, giving new mothers far more time to challenge unfair treatment in the workplace. It would also preserve equal pay, maintain protections against sex discrimination, strengthen safeguards against dismissal during pregnancy and maternity leave, and enhance redundancy protections for new mothers.

The Act would also go beyond existing maternity protections by introducing explicit rights for breastfeeding mothers, protections for women undergoing fertility treatment, and new leave rights for parents who suffer miscarriage or stillbirth.

Reform UK’s Education, Skills and Equality spokeswoman Suella Braverman said: “As the first Cabinet Minister in British history to take maternity leave, and as a working mother of two children, I understand the challenges women face when balancing a career and family life. No woman should ever feel that becoming a mother will hold her back or leave her with fewer opportunities.”

Britain should be one of the best countries in the world to start and raise a family. That means celebrating motherhood, supporting working mothers and ensuring that women are not forced to choose between having children and building a successful career.

As Suella Braverman said: “A Reform UK government will be the most pro-woman, pro-mother and pro-family government in British history."

https://reformparty.uk/news/reform-uk-vows-to-stand-up-for-women-and-mothers

The only real policy in the entire thing is increasing the time limit to 12 months for discrimination cases which is positive, it doesn’t counter act the huge negative impact of the changes to the equality act and the rest is just waffle.

The Act would also go beyond existing maternity protections by introducing explicit rights for breastfeeding mothers, protections for women undergoing fertility treatment, and new leave rights for parents who suffer miscarriage or stillbirth.

What rights? What protections?

If Reform really cared about women why would their MP's recently vote against -

The Employment Rights Act which included provisions to protect women from sexual harassment in the workplace and protect pregnant women from unfair dismissal,

and

The Violence Against Women and Girls* *Act which would tackle stalking, harassment, and drink spiking, as well as protections against the unauthorized sharing of intimate images online

Deeds not words.

They don’t mention anything about childcare vouchers or nursery places or after school clubs etc. these are a major factor in allowing women to work. But Reform might prefer women to be at home with the kids.

Farage on women "Maybe it's because I've got so many women pregnant over the years that I have a different view"

Lee Anderson. Sexist neanderthal.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/09/mp-lee-anderson-will-not-be-missed-after-leaving-equalities-committee

That sounds quite positive, it's just a draft of an idea, but they have something to build on. In the end it'll will come down to the details, but the fact that they have got that far yet is not a problem, they've got time to work on it.

What this says to me is that Reform have identified that labours inability to firmly and clearly articulate its belief in single sex spaces and enforce the law alongside the utter batshittery of the greens and Lib Dem's 'this man wanking in front of nurses is a woman because he said so' is a huge area of weakness that they will exploit to the max.

is it because they care about women's rights? No but then no party gives a fuck about women's rights.

How are those left wing principles fitting with their desire for men to be able to access women's spaces (hospital wards, prisons, strip search them, in the refuges, in their rape survivor groups, lesbian groups, women's health groups) with the fact that these women you talk so derisively about for minding about 'a few men' are often:

disabled
victims of VAWG
from varied faiths
varied cultures

?

Politically, the left were supposed to be the ones who cared about such groups, who had social responsibility, who were the champions of inclusion, equality, tolerance, multiculturalism. Not racist, xenophobic, ableist, homophobic or misogynist, but you seem to feel that right thinking women are. And modelling how to dismiss and dehumanise those women from those groups. Destroying women and gay rights in the Equality Act for example would leave those women not with third spaces and careful policies to meet their needs as with trans people, but just excluded from public life altogether, presumably with your attitude of 'and they deserve it' (for being different to the righteous.)

I find it increasingly difficult to put a sheet of paper between Reform - we want to destroy the equality act because it gives people inconvenient protections and stops us being racist/xenophobic/religious intolerant/ableist/homophobic/misogynist

and Labour/Lib dem/Green - we want to destroy the equality act because it gives people inconvenient protections and stops us being racist/xenophobic/religious intolerant/ableist/misogynist

Two cheeks: same arse.

This

👏

I'm inherently cynical, especially having worked with job evaluation schemes in a council, that anyone has the ability to judge when two jobs that are nothing like each other are worth equal pay.

Reform have consistently voted against protections for women in parliment. The are on record saying they want to withdraw equality act. Think about what that means.

This proposal does not compensate for the removal of the legal protections within the equality act. It is light on concrete changes to say the least.
Once your legal protections are gone, it is going to be a long hard road to get them back.

Apart from the extension of the time limit for discrimination claims it’s all a bit wooly. What does it mean in practice?

And what is their stance on improving paternity leave and shared parental leave, which will also benefit women? That feels like a notable exclusion.

Would also be interested to know if Nigel Farage still thinks paid maternity leave is “lunacy” and if so how that fits in to all this.

Not racist, xenophobic, ableist, homophobic or misogynist, but you seem to feel that right thinking women are.

They are if they enable political parties who support these views.

And no, Labour for all its failings is not the same as Reform & to suggest so is just whitewashing their obvious aims.

Reform are proposing the ‘Women and Motherhood Protection Act’ while scrapping key protections for women this essentially legalises discrimination.
They are promising to keep some protections from sex discrimination, which have been in place for half a century, while scrapping the entire Equality Act and Employment Rights Act.

Be grateful - you get to keep some of your rights?!
Dont be fooled they dont care about women. They are removing some of the legal protections we have and dressing it up as s good thing.

https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/tuc-slams-reforms-shameless-and-deceptive-attempt-distract-policies-which-slash-womens-rights

But I replied to you.

And telling women that some men are also women because of how they feel, and that women who say "no, that doesn't describe my life at all, and the things I need support and help with are being ignored" are bigots and Nazis is both exclusive & divisive.

Genderism is an act of colonisation by male people upon female. It denies and overwrites our own self knowledge. It is no different to the Victorian explorers, missionaries and ethnologists who took it on themselves to tell other cultures who they were and what they were allowed to believe.

I'm sorry that you atre so sexist and value female people so little that you can't even see it.

Yes. Whatever the politicians may think, their voter base isn't going to support more state support for working mothers.

This article summarises the views of Reform representatives on women. It isnt pretty reading if you value bodily autonomy, are gay, are a single parent or are childfree. In fact, it isnt really cheery reading for anyone.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/reform-farage-women-families-abortion-fertility-b2924596.html

Well the court case determined that they were of equal value and so therefore should have been paid at equal pay rates. Had the law been written “same” instead of “equal” then there would have been no ability to even question the practice let alone have it examined in court. A logical and very foreseeable consequence of changing the wording and removal equality legislations is that companies will be able to have essentially 2 job titles with very similar but not exactly the same job descriptions and 2 pay rates, they would be within the boundaries of the law to do that and pay different rates per job.

It doesn't matter anyway, even if Reform did get into government, any attempts to change any legislation will be frustrated by the Civil Service, if legislation did get changed the process will be frustrated by the courts, they could remove any legal aid and rely on crowd funding and even if it did get to a tribunal, or appeal the system will do anything and everything to frustrate everything about it.

They are guilty of not being honest about the nature of the problem. The reason why they want to get rid of various laws is to get rid of the people in the system that will block things changing.

And they cannot be honest about the nature of the problem as Labour and the Civil Service et al will put things in place to stop Reform from being able to make the changes they want to. Like Biden when he gave Faucci a lifelong 'get out of jail free' card from being sued before he left office.

So they are left with pretending they will do X and Y to get people talking about X and Y, whilst secretly planning Z. You can bet whatever they say they will do is a smokescreen.

I personally detest Farage but what I detest more is that Labour and the Activist System is making him into some sort of fucking hero of the people because they are so intent on implementing their WEF Agenda. Which the UK did not vote for. But it is the same agenda across the Anglosphere.

There should have been no ability to question why the men and women working in a dusty windowless warehouse should not have been paid more than the men and women working in a bright and airy shop with more socialisation.

It's an utterly mad decision and it's under appeal.

You’re missing the point.

Whether you agree with the outcome of the court case or not the fact that they were able to question it on the basis of Equality is important.

I think the idea that women should happily vote their rights away because it wont happen is frankly mind boggling. There is no reason to believe that a future Reform goverment cant enact and implement new legislation.

What the fuck have I just read??

That’s more than a stretch!! 😂 FML! 🤦‍♀️

I'm not missing the point at all.

I don't believe it is possible to say that two jobs which are not the same are worthy of equal pay. That's just some random human's judgement. I don't think those claims by the ASDA and Next workers should have been allowed to go to court. I hope ASDA and Next will win their appeals.

I've done both the retail warehouse (stockroom). and the retail shop floor jobs, by the way and they certainly aren't the same. In times of full employment it's easier to recruit for one than the other, hence the continuing difference in pay now that both jobs are done by both men and women.

Working class women have fought long and hard for employment rights. They matter, they were hard won. Voting for a Reform goverment is the first step to throwing their efforts and these rights in the bin.
Dont be fooled by this proposed act. It is not a replacement for the legal protections that would be removed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/articles/cwy57kyedx3o