For immediate release
May 14, 2020
NDP supports call for gender-based analysis and feminist recovery plan
NDP Leader Alison Coffin says the NDP Caucus supports the call for a gender-based analysis of COVID-19 responses and a feminist recovery plan. The St. John’s Status of Women Council, the Provincial Action Network on the Status of Women, and the Gender and Politics Laboratory have written a letter to the Premier outlining the need for a gender-based response to the pandemic.
“This COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the disproportionate harms and risks for women and shone a light on gaps in our legislation and regulations protecting workers,” said Coffin.
One of the recommendations offered by the group is “Engaging in Gender-Based Analysis and centering the voices of marginalized women in recovery planning.”
Coffin says her Caucus proposed a stakeholder engagement process and non-partisan Economic Recovery Committee to the Premier on April 30.
“We envision gender-based analysis and the input of marginalized genders to be crucial to our proposal for economic recovery,” Coffin said.
The group’s letter and recommendations also highlight the problems of low pay and high-risk levels for front line and “essential” workers, often women, which have been exacerbated during this pandemic.
Coffin says her Caucus continues to call for enhanced worker protections and legislation to amend the Labour Standards Act and the Workplace Health and Safety Act and Regulations in areas including guaranteed paid sick leave and paid emergency leave days for all workers, elimination of doctor’s notes, fair overtime pay, and workers’ compensation coverage for all workers who become sick because of COVID-19. The NDP has been consistently calling for increases to the minimum wage for years.
Other recommendations from the group’s letter to the Premier include a central phone line for the province for victims of domestic violence; discussion of domestic violence at daily COVID-19 briefings; an all-party task force on domestic violence; the establishment of a living wage; and a long-term plan to increase the number of quality, publicly-funded childcare spaces.
“COVID-19 has intensified the structural barriers and inequalities already facing women in Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Coffin. “We echo our call for a non-partisan Economic Recovery Committee and that the voices of marginalized women be part of that important engagement process.”
The letter to the Premier from the St. John’s Status of Women Council, the Provincial Action Network on the Status of Women, and the Gender and Politics Laboratory, including their concrete recommendations, is available here:
-30-
For further information, contact Zaren Healey White, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), 693-9172 (c), or zarenhealeywhite@gov.nl.ca.