The
Transport and General Workers’ Union (T&G) has launched a petition asking
the Government to declare International Women’s Day a paid national bank
holiday for all UK workers.
Diana
Holland, T&G national organiser for women, race and equalities, said:
"Making International Women’s Day a paid national bank holiday for all
workers would be a way of highlighting women’s contributions to work and
society, while bringing the number of UK bank holidays nearer to the rest of
Europe’s.
"Women
now make up more than half the UK workforce, yet continue to be discriminated
against by pay, sexual harassment, working time and lack of senior
representation," she added. " We need to assert women’s political and
social rights, and what better way to do this than to have an annual day to
celebrate women’s contributions?"
British
workers have just eight days a year in bank holidays, the lowest number of any
country in the EU, and unlike the rest of Europe, UK employers can count public
holidays as part of the statutory holiday entitlement. On average, UK workers
get 13 days less holiday entitlement than the rest of the EU.
