A furlough Blow
7 in 10 requests for respite from working mothers turned down TUC says workers need paid leave even if employers disagree
BOSSES have rejected seven in 10 of the furlough requests made by working mothers.
A TUC survey of more than 50,000 women found that 71% of those who asked after school closures were turned down.
Two in five working parents did not know they had been entitled to request furlough since March.
The job retention scheme currently allows bosses to furlough parents who cannot work due to school or nursery closures.
The TUC wants ministers to clarify that private and public sector employers alike can use furlough, so staff can care for kids.
The union body is also calling for an emergency temporary right to
furlough for working parents even if their bosses want to say no.
Before it is taken, though, they want employers to discuss all options with staff and guarantee protections when they return.
Almost half of respondents to the survey fear they will be treated negatively by their employers if they admit childcare difficulties.
Thousands of women have been forced to reduce their work hours, take unpaid leave or holiday to cope, or leave their jobs.
Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC, said: “The safety of school staff and children must always come first.
“But the Government’s lack of support for working parents is causing huge financial hardship and stress – and hitting low-paid mums and single parents hardest.
“Just like in the first lockdown,
mums are shouldering the majority of childcare. Tens of thousands of mums have told us they are despairing. It’s neither possible nor sustainable for them to work as normal while looking after their children and supervising schoolwork. Making staff take weeks of unpaid leave isn’t the answer.
“Bosses must do the right thing and offer maximum flexibility to mums and dads who can’t work because of childcare. And as a last resort, parents must have a temporary right to be furloughed where their boss will not agree.”
The survey, which was conducted between January 7 and 10, found 78% of working parents had not been offered furlough. Of those who had asked for furlough, 71% had been knocked back. Almost half (44%) of mums told the TUC they were worried about the impact having to take time off work would have on household finances.
A quarter (25%) were using up annual leave to manage their childcare needs.
But nearly one in five (18%) had reduced their working hours, and 7% were even taking unpaid leave to cope. Campaigner Anna Whitehouse, founder of website Mother Pukka, told the Mirror: “What working parents have been tasked with in lockdown is not humanly possible. “You’re looking at an average eight-hour working day, six-hour school day, 12 hours of parenting
wrapped around that – that’s 26 hours in a 24-hour day.
“I’m hearing daily from women who are stepping back, standing down and logging off because they’re burning out. Some are quitting out of choice, many are not.
“One thing that can change right now is businesses offering the right to flexible furlough. Companies need to step up for parents before we step back to the 1950s.”
Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, said: “The parents of young children are currently being asked to either sacrifice their income or their child’s education and care.
“This is an emergency and if the Government doesn’t step in soon there will be a generational rollback in maternal employment that will take us decades to repair.”
In the Commons yesterday, Labour MP Tracy Brabin called on ministers to “identify the gaps” in economic support offered and to “right this wrong without delay”.
She said zero-hours workers in the events industry, freelancers and recent entrepreneurs as well as newly self-employed people had all fallen through the gaps.
Ms Brabin added of those workers: “They have been abandoned... left to fend for themselves.”