Bosses turn down mums’ furlough requests, forcing kids into schools

Could you do your job and teach kids at the same time?

As even Gavin Williamson now recognises, schools are dangerous places during a pandemic – for teachers, parents and for the wider community.

If one child gets the virus, it will soon spread to children and staff and to the families of those children and staff.

So, with cases soaring, it’s vital that as few children as possible are in school. But schools have been reporting that more children are coming in than during the first lockdown.

Why is this? A recent Trade Unions Congress survey of 50,000 working mothers hints at one reason – bosses aren’t giving employees time off to look after their kids.

Parents can ask to be furloughed if their kids schools or nurseries are shut but, the non-representative TUC survey suggests, only 40% of mums are aware this is possible.

Of those that asked, 71% were told ‘no’. Under the government’s rules, there’s then nothing they can do about that, they have to keep working.

For many parents forced to keep working, they have no choice but to send their children to school.

Annual and unpaid leave and reduced hours might have got them through the first lockdown but, for many, that’s all run out or is not affordable.

As well as encouraging the spread of the virus, this policy has hugely increased stress and anxiety for working mothers. Around 90% said that their anxiety and stress levels had increased during this latest lockdown.

As Joeli Brearly, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, said: “The parents of young children are currently being asked to either sacrifice their income or their child’s education and care; placing them in an impossible situation. We know that this burden is predominantly falling to mothers, and the consequences for maternal employment will be disastrous.”

The TUC is calling for a legal right to access the furlough scheme for parents and those with caring responsibilities who have had these significantly disrupted due to coronavirus restrictions, and people who cannot work because they are required to shield.

Joe Lo is a co-editor of Left Foot Forward

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