7. Debate: The Equality and Human Rights Commission Annual Review 2016-2017

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:05 pm on 12 December 2017.

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Photo of Joyce Watson Joyce Watson Labour 6:05, 12 December 2017

My answer to you is this: I will protect and always have protected human rights. That's my answer to you. I'm not here to discuss Tony Blair. I'm here to discuss what I believe to be fundamental principles in life, and one of those is human rights.

So, we've seen a steep rise in the cost of bringing forward dismissal cases. In fact, if you haven't got £1,500 in your back pocket, you're going to have a huge problem taking forward a case of unfair dismissal. And it was the Conservative Government that ensured that that's what you're going to need. So, I think that Wales has to be alert to rights deflation throughout and after Brexit, and the EHRC's oversight will be hugely important in that. We cannot afford to fall behind Europe, and there are warning signs. Because at the same time that the UK has been entangled in Brexit talks—and it has been a big tangle—the European Commission has been discussing with trade unions and employer organisations a new package of rights to improve work-life balance that include carers' leave, flexible working and stronger protection from dismissal for new mothers. The reality is that, outside the EU, we will have to fight harder for new rights and harder to defend the existing ones. But we should be ambitious. We can be pacemakers. We mustn't get lapped, whatever else happens in other parts of the UK.

Julie—no, I think it might have been Jane—already talked about the fact that female staff during and after pregnancy do suffer disproportionately. There is evidence that nearly one in five male human resource decision makers say that they are reluctant to hire young women who might have children, despite it being illegal to consider that factor when recruiting. There was a YouGov poll of 800 HR decision makers, and they found that one in 10 female HR staff were also hesitant to hire women in their 20s and their 30s. A quarter of decision makers said that they work for companies that considered whether a woman was pregnant or had young children when making a decision about promotion, and Carole Easton, chief executive of Young Women's Trust, representing women aged between 16 and 30 on low or no pay, and which commissioned the survey, said that it is shocking, and indeed it is absolutely shocking.

I want to finish by saying that I absolutely completely disassociate myself from any of the comments made by UKIP here today. I will not stay quiet, because staying quiet is what allowed injustice and abuse of human rights in the very first place.