Tradesmen with On The Tools, The Dad Shift, Movember, Equimundo and Amanda Martin MP on Parliament Square calling for paternity leave to be extended to the self employed.
Self-employed tradies were in Westminster to hand MPs condoms labelled “this lasts longer than our paternity leave” in a cheeky stunt highlighting what campaigners say is a major gap in Britain’s parental leave system.
The stunt by construction community On The Tools and The Dad Shift hammered home a message that self employed people deserve paternity leave too, with campaigners and MPs urging Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, who is leading a new stream of Government work on men and boys, to make the issue a top priority.
The group posed with items that last longer than paternity leave, including packs of condoms with the message ‘this lasts longer than our paternity leave’, before handing them to MPs at an event rallying for change Parliament, supported by Equimundo, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Movember.
After posing for photos with power tools and high vis jackets alongside photos of the babies they were unable to spend time with because of inadequate leave provisions in Parliament Square, the group will head to an afternoon event in Parliament with MPs, business leaders and experts backing calls for a change.
Campaigners say the situation means thousands of dads can’t afford to take even a single day off when their baby is born. Extending paternity leave to the self employed would benefit lower and middle income fathers who get no income protection when taking time off to care for a newborn – enabling more equal caregiving choices.
An estimated 1 in 3 dads in construction took no time off when their last child was born, with many citing financial cost as a barrier. Half said they felt unsafe at work because they were so sleep deprived, according to a poll by On The Tools.**
There are 745,000 self-employed workers in the construction industry in the UK, the large majority men. An estimated 70,000 self-employed new fathers a year are excluded from paternity leave rights and could get basic protections at a marginal cost to the Government of as little as £13.6million a year, according to new research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.*
Lee Wilcox, CEO of On The Tools, also said: “This huge hole in our nation’s paternity leave system needs filling, fast. Too many self-employed tradesmen can’t afford to take even one day off when their baby arrives.
“Dads in the trades, like every new parent, want to show up for those precious first few weeks for their partner and new baby without being left out of pocket for doing so.”
George Gabriel, co-founder of The Dad Shift, said: “Your average tradesman can build a crib in less than the time they get off to bond with the baby that’ll sleep in it.
“It’s unacceptable that working blokes are shafted when their babies arrive, left totally unsupported in one of the most important and challenging times of their lives. It’s time for Labour to fix this.”
Lee Wilcox, CEO of On The Tools, also said: “This huge hole in our nation’s paternity leave system needs filling, fast. Too many self-employed tradesmen can’t afford to take even one day off when their baby arrives.
“Dads in the trades, like every new parent, want to show up for those precious first few weeks for their partner and new baby without being left out of pocket for doing so.”
Giovanna Lauro, DPhil, Deputy CEO, Equimundo: Center for Masculinities & Social Justice says; “Equimundo’s State of UK Men report, in partnership with Beyond Equality, found that 81% of fathers say being a dad is the most important job in the world. The problem isn’t a lack of commitment from men – it’s that too many fathers, especially the self-employed, simply can’t afford the time to care.”
Amanda Martin, Co-Chair of the Labour Group for Men & Boys and MP for Portsmouth North, said : “Self-employed tradesmen build our homes, fix our heating, and keep our lights on. We should be able to offer them the basic dignity of being able to welcome their child into the world without facing financial ruin. As this government’s work on Men & Boys gets under way, led by the Deputy Prime Minister, this is the perfect opportunity to get this fixed.”
Ali Strathern, Co-Chair of the Labour Group for Men & Boys and MP for Hitchin said, “It’s an absolute joke that self employed dads get less time off to get to know their little one than it took to conceive them. This Government is rightly on the side of decent working blokes and closing this loophole is exactly the kind of change that would show we mean business”