A City Hall taskforce to tackle employment discrimination and build workplaces that celebrate diversity would be set up under plans published by the Women’s Equality Party today.
The expert group announced in the party’s mayoral manifesto would prioritise bringing down alarmingly high rates of pregnancy discrimination faced by thousands of London women.
Government-commissioned research last month found that three in four pregnant women and new mothers experienced discrimination and one in nine lost their job as a result.
WEP mayoral candidate Sophie Walker would also task the London Enterprise Panel, the Mayor’s economic arm, to focus on creating quality jobs for women who are re-entering the labour market.
She argued that enabling women to work the hours they wanted — flexi, part or full-time — would add an estimated £70 billion to London’s economy as well as plugging the skills gap.
The party would encourage more firms to build on-site creches by creating a business rate relief scheme and to allow employees up to 10 days of paid care leave every year.
It would set up a London Equal Wage kitemark to get more businesses publishing their figures on equal pay and promotion.
Ms Walker’s other proposals include working towards a Scandinavian system of childcare where the first 15 hours a week are free and cost just £1 an hour after that, as well as providing all new parents a London Baby Box with essentials for the first few months.
She said: “Forty-five years after the Equal Pay Act the gender pay gap still exists. WE will make work flexible, promotion fair and pay equal.”
