Welsh activists to ‘down toy tools’ in first ever parents strike

Abby Neve

Parents in Wales will join a UK-wide ‘parent strike’ later this month, downing ‘toy tools’ outside the Senedd to demand better protections.

The coordinated action will take place in all four UK nations and is being organised by campaigners Anna Whitehouse, founder of Flex Appeal, and fathers’ rights group the Dad Movement. Participants will carry and down symbolic ‘toy tools’, a reference to traditional strikes in which workers ‘down tools’ to demand fair treatment.

Anna Whitehouse, who is organising the strike, said:

“74,000 mums are kicked out of work every year after having kids, and on top of this, many parents have to give in and leave their jobs, or reduce their hours due to inflexible work.

“Meanwhile, 600,000 families are failed by the worst paternity leave in Europe every single year, despite a mountain of evidence on the devastating impact on dads, on mums and babies.

“With many young adults put off having young kids by the cost, the barriers facing parenthood are simply too great and as a nation, we need to take decisive action.”

The strike, planned for 27 August, comes as the UK Government prepares to conclude its parental leave review.

Organisers say the current system is failing families, with poor paternity provision, inflexible workplaces, and rising financial pressures contributing to worsening gender inequality and a declining birth rate.

The striker’s demands include flexible working as a default right, major reform of paternity leave, stronger protections against workplace discrimination, and Government action In the upcoming parental leave review.

Anna continued: “Enough really is enough. A generation ago women in Iceland downed tools for each other, for their families and for gender equality.”

“We’re doing the same, but this time with mums and dads together. It’s time to make the changes that parents need to be able to thrive – we need to see flexible working introduced as default, not as a perk, and we need paternity leave to catch up with maternity leave to start to balance the parenting scales.”

George Gabriel, co-founder of The Dad Shift said, “Parenting is meant to be hard, but it’s not meant to be this hard. In just a few generations, the costs of raising kids have skyrocketed. Raising a family can’t be allowed to become the preserve of the well off, and it’s not like we don’t know how to prevent that.”

“We now need to see decisive action from the Government. Flexible working available to everyone that means parents can properly share the load.”

“At least six weeks’ paternity leave paid at 90% pay or more to properly support the most active generation of fathers we have ever seen.”

“The Government’s parental leave review gives us a once-in-a-generation chance to finally sort this out, so we’re encouraging everyone who cares about this issue to join us on 27th August for The Parent Strike.”

Well known faces getting behind the strike include Emily Clarkson, Ashley James, and Cherry Healy.

The strike comes after recent evidence from Women’s Equality Network Wales (WEN Wales) suggests that progress on gender equality is not only stalling, but reversing.

Their latest State of the Nation report found that the gender pay gap in Wales has increased to 9.7%, underlining the need for renewed political and societal action.

The report also found that women’s economic activity and employment rates have declined while single parent households – more likely to be headed by women – have seen poverty rates jump from 39% to 45%.

A spokesperson for the Welsh Government said:

“We are committed to building a gender-equal Wales where women and girls have equal power, pay and opportunity. Working together with employers and trade unions, we are helping women get into better-paid jobs while regularly collecting and publishing clear data on pay differences to guide action to close”

“We encourage employers to offer fair work practices including safe, inclusive, secure, and flexible working conditions. Statutory rights on flexible working and parental leave, however, fall within the scope of employment rights which are matters reserved to the UK Government.”

“We’re helping families with the cost of living by introducing a phased expansion of funded childcare, which at full rollout will be the most generous childcare offer in the UK. We are also developing the Cynnal child pilot payment for low-income families with young children, and a new child poverty strategy with clear poverty reduction targets.

“We encourage people to contact the Claim What’s Yours helpline on 0800 702 2020 to find out about the financial support they may be entitled to.”

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