The Impact of COVID-19 on Women in the Workplace

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:03 pm on 23 February 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:03, 23 February 2021

Well, Llywydd, I'm sure that Huw Irranca-Davies will recognise the actions that the Welsh Government has already taken to protect workforces where women are disproportionately represented, so our decision early on to make PPE available free in the social care sector was a really important guarantee that those workers knew they would have the protection that that has provided. As you know, it's charged to care homes across our border, where we made the decision from the beginning that the protection of those workers was our top priority and getting them the protection they needed and getting it to them free was an investment by us in the well-being of that workforce, as is the continued scheme that we have to make sure that people are paid sick pay fully in the social care sector, so that they don't feel, as Huw Irranca said, obliged to come back to work when they know that it's not right for them to do so. And in the retail sphere where, again, women are disproportionately part of the workforce, we announced in January that workplaces would have to carry out new risk assessments with higher standards to make sure that workplaces are safe against the new variant of the disease. And we were supported in doing so by employers here in Wales. And those higher standards—making sure that workplaces are properly protected and everything is done to make sure that workers and people who use those settings are kept safe—will continue to be at the forefront of everything that we do as a Government during the rest of this calendar year, when coronavirus is still going to be part of our lives.

And I'll say again, because I so much agree with Huw Irranca-Davies: the thought that up to a third of working families in Wales could find themselves with £1,000 less to meet the needs of their families—people who use that money to do simple things like keep the lights on and keep food on the table—the thought that this Government has kept those families waiting, not knowing what their position would be, it's genuine cruelty. Imagine living in those conditions and knowing that, in just a few weeks' time, you wouldn't have that extra support. I think it's shameful, and I really, really hope that, on 3 March, the Chancellor will finally make good the distress that that has caused to those families.