Stewart Forrest – Usdaw’s divisional officer for Scotland says: “The coronavirus crisis further exposed the huge challenges working parents, and especially women, face balancing work with caring responsibilities. Not having enough childcare for working parents risks reversing decades of progress women have made in the labour market and increasing the gender pay gap, as well as having a damaging impact on economic productivity.

“As part of any new deal for workers, following on from the pandemic, we must have a substantial answer to the long-running childcare challenge. So we very much welcome Anas Sarwar putting this policy at the heart of the manifesto for the Holyrood elections. It clearly shows that Scottish Labour are answering the questions caused by the crisis and developing a much needed new deal for workers.”

Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with over 400,000 members. Membership has increased by more than one-third over the last couple of decades. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.
 
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion