Contributors

Ben Moxham

Ben is the Senior Equality Policy Officer in the TUC’s Equality and Employment Rights Department. He covers equal pay, discrimination law and family-friendly rights. He is also responsible for the TUC Equality Audits which look at how unions are ensuring effective representation within their internal structures and how they are progressing workplace equality issues through collective bargaining.

Read Ben’s Age Immaterial blog posts.

Christopher Brooks

Chris is the Policy Adviser for Employment and Skills at Age UK, covering issues relating to people aged 50+ in the workplace, the labour market, training and informal community learning.  This centres on tackling age discrimination at all levels, and working to ensure that people in this age group have full access to all available opportunities. He has worked at Age UK since May 2010, prior to which was at City & Guilds leading on the organisation’s lobbying work and working on skills policy development.

Read Chris’ Age Immaterial blog posts.

Frances O’Grady

Frances is General Secretary of the TUC, and is the first woman ever to hold this post. She has served on the Resolution Foundation’s Commission on Living Standards, and has been a member of the Low Pay and the High Pay Commissions. Frances is a strong believer in protecting the public service ethos, opposes privatisation and leads TUC campaigning on the NHS. Frances’ full biography is available at the TUC website.

Read Frances’ Age Immaterial blog posts.

Geraldine Bedell

Geraldine is the editor of Gransnet, the social networking site for grandparents. Prior to that, Geraldine founded Agebomb, a website covering issues raised by demographic change and ageing. She has written for all the UK’s broadsheet newspapers including The Independent on Sunday, where she worked as a columnist, and a wide range of magazines. Geraldine is also the author of a memoir, The Handmade House, and a novel, The Gulf Between Us, both published by Penguin. She has written and presented documentaries for television and radio and regularly speaks on ageing issues.

Read Geraldine’s Age Immaterial blog posts.

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.

Read Kay’s Age Immaterial blog posts.

Michelle Doust

Michelle is the TUC’s Digital Campaigner, working on their social media campaigns, blogs, info-graphics, animations, short films and other interactive web resources.

Read Michelle’s Age Immaterial blog posts.

Rob Holdsworth

Rob is a Senior Media and Campaigns Officer at the TUC.

Read Rob’s Age Immaterial blog posts.

Scarlet Harris

Scarlet it the TUC’s Women’s Equality Officer, based in the Equality and Employment Rights Department. She joined the TUC in 2009 and works on policy issues such as maternity rights; representation of women in unions; occupational segregation; women in the labour market; equal pay; sex discrimination and family policy.

Read Scarlet’s Age Immaterial blog posts.

Sarah Wellard

Sarah is Director of Policy, Research and Communications at Grandparents Plus. She has led the charity’s research, policy and campaigning work since February 2010. She has an MSc in social policy from the LSE (2006), a BA (Hons) in psychology and a postgraduate diploma in economics from Birkbeck College London. Prior to working for Grandparents Plus Sarah worked as a freelance researcher and journalist specialising in child welfare and social policy and has also worked in public policy and campaigning positions at Barnardo’s and disability charity United Response and as a civil servant.

Read: Sarah’s Age Immaterial blog posts.

Guest Posts

We are keen to share a broad range of experiences and topics around the issues facing working women over 50. To do this we invite a people from a variety of sectors and backgrounds to share their expertise as well as their own personal experiences. If you’d like to contribute please get in touch. So far, guest authors include:

• Camilla Palmer: Consultant and Head of Employment at Leigh Day; a specialist law firm. Camilla also co-founded the Women’s Equality Network.
• Chris Ball: Chief Executive of TAEN. Prior to this Chris was a freelance journalist, a HR consultant and a national officer of the union MSF (now Unite).
• Chris Haswell: Pensions Officer for the Public and Commercial Services union. Chris has also worked at the Equal Opportunities Commission on Equal Pay.
• Gemma Tumelty: Stakeholder Relations Manager for the Office of the Leader of the Opposition.
• John Hannet: General Secretary of Usdaw. John sits on both the Executive Committee and the General Council of the TUC and represents the interests of Usdaw members on a number of Government Commissions.
• Mary-Ann Stephenson: Mary-Ann has worked as a consultant, trainer and researcher on gender equality and human rights in the UK and around the world.
• Matthew Flynn: Director of the Centre for Research into the Older Workforce (CROW).
• Miriam O’Reilly: a member of the Labour Party Commission on Older Women and a former BBC Countryfile presenter who successfully took the corporation to tribunal for age discrimination.
• Sue Ferns: Director of Communications and Research at Prospect. She is a member of the TUC General Council, a board member of unionlearn and TUC Aid Trustee.
• Toni Dean: Toni is a working mother, grandmother, Ruskin student, trade unionist and Labour Party activist.
• Victoria Phillips: head of employment rights at the leading national trade union law firm Thompsons Solicitors.