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Kay Carberry

Kay Carberry

Kay is Assistant General Secretary at the TUC. She is responsible for the TUC’s internal management systems and is the Secretary to the Executive Committee. She leads on key areas of policy development and project management for the organisation. You can read Kay’s full biography at the TUC website.

  • Kay Carberry Kay Carberry

    Workplace experiences of women over 50

    working in industry

    Women over 50 are the first generation to have been protected by equal pay and sex discrimination laws, and the first to have rights to paid maternity leave. Yet after decades of hard work, many of women of my generation feel, to be frank, short changed.  The fact that this generation of women earns a fifth less than their male counterparts and less than any other age group of women should set alarm bells ringing.

    Today the TUC launches a detailed report on the issues facing women over the age of 50 in the labour market.

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    Posted on February 27th, 2014 by Kay Carberry filed under: Blog, Work

  • Kay Carberry Kay Carberry

    Older women deserve better at work

    A few days ago I spoke to several women aged between 50-65 working in low-ish wage jobs in unionised companies. Most had worked all their lives, many from the age of 15, bringing up families – without, as they pointed out, tax credits or other childcare support – and who now saw their retirement date receding as the state pension age went up.

    These were the common themes of their working lives:

    • Dwindling control over their working hours and shift patterns – playing havoc with caring responsibilities – for children, grandchildren, elderly parents.
    • Employers under pressure, passing the strain on to staff: more demanding targets; hours cut; jobs more dependent on advanced and changing IT skills; new competence-based assessments. All this hit older workers disproportionately – especially women who missed out on training opportunities the first time round, or who might be affected by menopausal symptoms.

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    Posted on April 4th, 2013 by Kay Carberry filed under: Blog, Work