In the last year, the experience of women in the workplace
has become more precarious as the recession’s chokehold tightens. Female
redundancy rates are increasing and female unemployment figures climb higher.
According to 2008 According to CSO 2011 figures, the figure for unemployed
women in the Republic of Ireland rose sharply from around 4% in 2008 to 10.4%
in 2011 (CSO, Women and Men in Ireland, 2011). In Northern Ireland, where
unemployment rates have hit a peak since the initial post-Agreement boom, a
similar story is evident with the unemployment figures among women leaping from
2.6% in 2008 to 5.8% in 2011 (DETI Statistics, 2008,2009,2010, 2011). According
to a TUC 2008 report Women and Recession, finding new work can be particularly
difficult for women with childcare or other caring responsibilities. In 2011,
38% of female employees were working in part-time roles, compared to only 8% of
men (WRDA, Women’s Manifesto, 2011). The TUC has noted that many women in
part-time work are less likely to have savings than their male counterparts,
and so are more likely to face poverty as a result of unemployment (TUC, 2008).
President Michael D. Higgins, in his speech to the Women’s
Conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Conference in Belfast today, confirmed
these facts, driving home the message, that while across the island of Ireland
we have experienced great improvements in the social and economic realities of women
and men, we are now in the midst of a socio-economic story that “is far from
comforting or reassuring”.
It was appropriate then that first group that the President
met with after his speech was the Northern Ireland Human Rights Consortium. The
Consortium’s campaign for a Bill of Rights, as was committed to in the Good Friday
Agreement 14 years ago by both the Irish and British governments, has
emphasised the need to recognise and legislate for socio-economic rights. The
Consortium’s Manager, Sorcha McKenna, said of President Higgins’ speech:
“The people of Northern Ireland were promised a Bill of
Rights almost fourteen years ago yet this remains one of the few undelivered
elements of the Good Friday Agreement. Although we have a political process,
unless all elements of the Agreement are fulfilled we cannot truly proceed from
post conflict to peace. President Higgins understands the importance of rights
and equality as the transformative building blocks of a stable, peaceful and
prosperous society. We are assured by today’s meeting and his keen interest in
our campaign that the President will us his position to promote and protect
rights throughout the island of Ireland.”
In its submissions to the NIO Consultation on a Bill of
Rights for Northern Ireland, the ICTU drew attention to a number of
socio-economic issues. For instance, the (NIC)ICTU Women’s Committee put
forward the need for the right to equal pay with supporting mechanisms to make
this achievable and the right to accessible and adequate pensions. The
(NIC)ICTU also called for a bill that would protect workers from exploitation,
an issue that is ever more relevant for all workers, but perhaps particularly
for those women in lower paid work who are most exposed to exploitation. The
ICTU’s Youth Committee in their submission emphasised the need for social and
economic rights to be recognised writing: ‘it is stretching belief that
tackling the legacy of a conflict born of social, economic and cultural
inequalities can be done without tackling these same issues’
The public appetite for a Bill of Rights has not waned since
the NIO Consultation, and a testimony to this is the Overdue document produced by the Human Rights Consortium in
November 2011, which provides irrefutable evidence that a Bill of Rights
attracts support in excess of 81% from voters of each of the five main
political parties in Northern Ireland, with no difference between Catholics or
Protestants. The Human Rights Consortium remains confident that progress on a
Bill of Rights can be secured given the
cross community appetite and need for positive change and as the
President stated in his speech:
“…surely the lesson of the peace process in Northern Ireland
is that no problem, however its apparent intractability, is impervious to
solution if we summon up the collective will, determination and ingenuity to
address and resolve it.”