Legal claim 'landslide' warning over female public sector job cut threats

[slayton]

Legal claim 'landslide' warning over female public sector job cut threats
By Andrew Hough
Published: 27 Sep 2010

The impact of public sector cuts on female workers could lead to a “landslide” of claims against employers, unions have warned. Experts warned women would likely be hit hardest by the cuts as female workers make up a large proportion of back-office, clerical and caring work.

Women could endure a disproportionate amount of pain from the forthcoming spending cuts due to making up the majority of the public sector workforce, they claimed.

Experts warned that women would likely be hit hardest by the cuts as female workers make up a large proportion of back-office, clerical, caring, catering and temporary work.

Official figures from the Office for National Statistics show that almost two thirds of public sector workers are female.

Unison officials on Sunday warned they would mount legal action against any employer found to have discriminated against women and not carried out impact assessments before cutting jobs and public services.

Dave Prentis, the union’s general secretary, said officials would “not stand back” and watch equality improvements be “undone” by public sector organisations who “cut jobs indiscriminately”.

"It is easy to see that women are literally in the firing line when it comes to public sector job cuts and that is not acceptable,” he said.

"The Government must take account of the impact of public spending cuts on women and rethink their strategy."

Officials from the Equality and Human Rights Commission are due to meet with the Treasury on Monday to discuss how cuts will be invoked on “vulnerable” groups of workers.

"The Commission recognises that the government needs to take difficult decisions as part of its deficit reduction programme,” an EHRC spokeswoman said.

“However, we also want to ensure that equality issues are taken into account when decisions are made.”

Julie Mellor, a partner who specialises in the public sector at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the global accountanting firm, added: “It is definitely an issue that needs to be looked at as there is a strong chance the spending cuts will have a disproportionate effect on women.”

A Treasury spokeswoman said: "The Government takes its equalities responsibilities very seriously, and has made clear that it will look closely at the impact of Spending Review decisions on different groups.

“All departments ensure that equality issues are considered when assessing options for spending reductions - they have a legal obligation to do so."

[neoteny]

there is a strong chance the spending cuts will have a disproportionate effect on women

Yeppers, just the same way as spending had a disproportionate effect on women... 

[Mr. X]

MEN are the toughest hit by the recession, not women. What a joke.

[Captain Courageous]

So what are they afraid of? A subsequent "landslide" in wrongful termination suits?

[Pernicious]

Don't fire the people doing the clerical work, lets fire the people doing the actual work instead... The garbage collectors, the police officers, etc....

[Captain Courageous]

This article comes across as a veiled threat to employers.

[PaulGuelph]

"cut jobs indiscriminately". 

They discriminated against men when they hired, so they should also discriminate against men when they let people go.  That is called 'equity'. 

[Men's Rights Activist]

Women could endure a disproportionate amount of pain from the forthcoming spending cuts due to making up the majority of the public sector workforce, they claimed.

But no lawsuits allowed for any man, during the recent mancession, because the misandrist Obama administration is only about womens' rights. ...got it.  Apparently, Obama's union thug supporters think this is okay too.  Where was their outcry when men were disproportionately losing their jobs.

[The Biscuit Queen]

So when the recession hit and the majority of those laid off were men, that was ok.  If the 2/3 of government and care workers who are women(which is unequal, btw) gets cut back to 1/2, it is bad because the women are no longer a majority and were the ones dealing with the layoffs?

I wonder, if the total job loss still is still predominantly male, will that get brought up, or will they just only count the last few months when it is female?

If a majority of govt workers are still female (say 59%) will that be meantioned?