Tag Archives: parental leave

Jo Swinson MP

Celebrating yet another win in my campaign for greater transparency on parental leave and pay

By Jo Swinson MP | Wed 3rd October 2018 - 5:45 pm

I am absolutely delighted that earlier this week the Government announced it would be consulting on the Bill I introduced in Parliament back in June, which would require organisations with more than 250 staff to publish their parental leave and pay policies.

Campaigning does work! The numbers in Parliament and the Government’s inability to focus on anything but Brexit mean that more and more MPs want to work across party lines to make things happen. In fact, my Bill received support from Conservative, Labour, SNP and Green MPs, as well as of course from my Lib Dem colleagues. It’s great to …

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NewsHound

LibLink: Jo Swinson Parental pay transparency would do wonders for workplace equality – but the government need to take action

By NewsHound | Sun 30th September 2018 - 10:55 am

This week, Jo Swinson has persuaded 10 major firms to share their parental leave policies as a key element in the fight against maternity discrimination. Jo, who introduced shared parental leave as a Business Minister, now wants companies to go further to encourage employees and attract more people to work for them:

She wrote for the Independent about why this was so important:

A new mother forced to resign after being bombarded with texts and emails telling her she “obviously can’t work with two kids”. Another one who returns to work to find herself reapplying for her job after a company restructure.

…

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The Voice

Well done, Jo! Swinson gets major employers to be more transparent on parental leave…

By The Voice | Thu 27th September 2018 - 8:10 am

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/4860335535/in/photolist-8puuqx-nH9KhK-x5gkW-a2Yx4D-8putCp-a32qpS-a2YbjP-9kJJvt-7b8177-8puprR-6SKbQG-6SKbZG-oKCWvp-dkaUyr-v2EDLi-r1tFvY-r1tFHm-9kNUaq-4Mph7K-ChcB23-8puqfH-8pxBCE-8pxDRo-9kJHqK-aWwhx4-9VBBzN-5WEQZB-a2Ybz8-9kJLQR-9kP8co-4icUAV-9kMMvL-9kMSBb-9kMNwd-bYafLo-8purhr-9kKZfe-nzKQ2n-yNYtG-8pup2p-8purRn-hKv96Z-8pupSi-8pust2-bZPiEm-9kP7hq-a32p7J-8upwDg-5MSyss-9kMKy9Jo Swinson, Lib Dem Deputy Leader, has announced nine major employers have agreed to publish their parental leave and pay policies.

Representing around 150,000 employees, the nine companies are:

  • Accenture
  • Addleshaw Goddard
  • Direct Line Group
  • EY
  • KPMG
  • Linklaters
  • PwC
  • RBS
  • Santander

Jo has been campaigning tirelessly for greater transparency on parental leave and pay. Getting these large companies to agree to disclose their parental pay and leave policies sets a standard that other companies will feel more pressure to follow.

Jo praised these employers for “setting an excellent example, demonstrating to others they can …

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Kirsten Johnson

Jo Swinson introduces Private Member’s Bill on parental leave

By Kirsten Johnson | Thu 7th June 2018 - 9:00 am

Well done to Lib Dem Deputy Leader Jo Swinson on introducing her Parental Leave and Pay Arrangements Private Member’s Bill yesterday in the Commons. Here she is talking about it:

This bill would require firms which employ more than 250 people to publish their data on parental leave and pay arrangements. As reported in the BBC

Ms Swinson said more than 54,000 women a year lose their jobs because of pregnancy and maternity discrimination, while fathers were worried about taking shared parental leave because of the negative effect on their careers.

Well done Jo on leading the charge! If enacted, this will greatly help parents and prospective parents up and down the country get the support they need from their workplaces.

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Mary Reid

The Daily Mail gets it wrong again

By Mary Reid | Tue 6th August 2013 - 11:56 am

Parents and child - Some rights reserved by Ed YourtonThe Daily Mail still doesn’t ‘get’ the Liberal Democrats, although many of us take that as evidence that we must be doing something right.

According to the headline today Clegg tells new dads they must take a month off or get nothing: Deputy PM wants to follow Scandinavia’s lead to make sure fathers play a bigger role in childcare, Nick Clegg and the party have  apparently already adopted a policy that is to be debated in Glasgow next month.

So this presents us with another opportunity to explain how policy making works, or is supposed to work, in the Liberal Democrats.  A year or so ago the Federal Policy Committee set up a policy working group, chaired by the inestimable Claire Tyler, to look at work/life balance. They took evidence from a wide range of experts and organisations and have now published their policy paper entitled A Balanced Working Life: Policies for Low and Middle Income Households (pdf).

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Caron Lindsay

Jo Swinson uses the F word in Guardian interview

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 20th May 2013 - 10:28 am

jo swinsonLast week, I said that Liberal Democrats should use the word feminist much more than we do. Women Liberal Democrats has done so much to advance policy on women’s equality over the years and its successor Liberal Democrat Women has a bright future ahead of it. However, women’s hard won rights are under attack all over the world, whether it’s the disgrace of female genital mutilation practised at home or abroad, domestic violence, employment rights, rape culture or abortion rights. Projects like Everyday Sexism expose a misogyny that is …

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Michael Moore

Michael Moore’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 21st November 2012 - 12:30 pm

Every week, Michael Moore MP, Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland, writes a column for newspapers in his Borders constituency. Here’s the latest edition in which he is too modest, however, to draw attention to the fact that he won Best Scot at Westminster in the Herald’s Scottish Politician of the Year awards,  

Post Offices

In recent months a number of my constituents have written to me

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Stephen Tall

Nick’s third ‘Letter from the Leader’: “More freedom for parents and more rights for people with mental health problems”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 18th November 2012 - 2:05 pm

The third of Nick Clegg’s Letters from the Leader series has hit party members’ email inboxes today — here’s what he has to say…

In a week when we saw a set of disappointing elections – with hard working Liberal Democrats not getting the results they deserved and turnout slumping to a new low – it’s worth remembering what we’re achieving in Government.

This week I had the privilege – and I really do mean privilege – to announce a change in government policy that I’ve been working

…

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Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg: Parents can share the joys and responsibilities of bringing children into the world

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 14th November 2012 - 4:33 pm

Nick Clegg went on Woman’s Hour yesterday after announcing the Coalition’s plans to allow parents to choose which of them takes leave when they have a new baby.

He talked to Jane Garvey about the plans for around 20 minutes, fielding some pretty robust questions, including whether men or women actually wanted this change. He was quite firm that it wasn’t for the government to say that women should take time off and men should work when a baby was born.

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Miranda Whitehead

Opinion: Shared Parental Leave? Why Bother?

By Miranda Whitehead | Tue 13th November 2012 - 5:00 pm

Nick Clegg’s announcement today may be overshadowed by various rows in the media, but this is an historic moment. Parents will soon be able to share 50 weeks of the 52 weeks maternity leave entitlement, and everyone will have the right to request flexible working.

Why does this matter?

Because we are wasting the talent of our women workers to such an extent that when women start a family they often take a drop in their pay, lose the opportunity for promotion or even can find themselves locked out of the labour market. About one million women are missing from the …

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Mary Reid

Nick Clegg announces the arrangements for flexible parental leave

By Mary Reid | Tue 13th November 2012 - 1:02 pm

Another radical Lib Dem proposal is being implemented today as Nick Clegg announces the arrangements for flexible parental leave.

In essence, parents of new babies will be entitled to a year’s worth of parental leave that they can share between themselves to suit their own circumstances. He says:

From 2015, the UK will shift to an entirely new system of flexible parental leave. Under the new rules, a mother will be able to trigger flexible leave at any point – if and when she feels ready. That means that whatever time is left to run on her original year can be

…

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