- Conference
- 2024 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 12 October 2023
- Decision
- Carried
Conference is concerned that women workers are being refused access to apprenticeships on the bases of working part-time.
Conference is aware that 5.87 million people work within the public sector with 1.96 million working within the NHS and 2 million working in Local Government.
Conference is also aware that around 65% of public sector workers are women and that around 38% of women work part-time.
Conference notes that women are less likely to progress within the workplace and are more likely to be overqualified for the role they are in. Working part-time is linked with:
• Limited pay progression
• Structural barriers during recruitment and appointment processes
• Reduced access to training and development opportunities, reward, and promotion
These all contribute to the continued existence and widening of the Gender Pay Gap.
Conference further notes that supporting women to progress, to use and develop their skills can help in attracting and retaining talent whilst also increasing productivity and performance. There is clear evidence to show that actions can and do help to close the Gender Pay Gap. Such actions include:
• create an inclusive culture
• support women’s career development
• progression for part-time workers
• improve recruitment and promotion processes
• measure and evaluate policies to support diversity and inclusion
Conference is aware that a shortage of flexible and part-time apprenticeship programmes mean that women are missing out on training and development opportunities as only one in 10 apprenticeships are contracted to work for less than 30 hours per week.
Conference is also aware that the current guidance from the Government is that “If, at the beginning of the programme, the apprentice works fewer than 30 hours a week you must extend the expected duration of the apprenticeship on the ILR (pro rata) to take account of this. You must also extend the dates on the apprenticeship agreement and training plan.” However, some employers are using the 30 hours rule to discount part-time workers contracted to work less than 30 hours and for those working zero-hours contracts.
Therefore, conference asks the National Women’s Committee to:
• Provide tools to support women’s officers, branches, regions, SOG’s and service groups to identify how widespread the issue is
• Provide resources to branches and activists to aide local negotiating around access to apprenticeship for part-time workers
• Work with the National Labour Link Committee to put pressure on the Government to issue stronger renewed guidance on part-time and flexible apprenticeships to clarify the position for employers