IN April the final report by the Commission on Older Women was published.

It was quickly lost in the pre-general election media, and totally invisible in the campaigning by the Labour Party or indeed by any other political party.

The report, called Our Time: A Strategy for Older Women in Work, in their Caring Responsibilities and in Public Life, needs to be lifted back off the shelf and brought to the fore in public debate.

The commission was established in 2012 and chaired by Labour Party deputy leader Harriet Harman QC. Its membership drew on the expertise not only of senior Labour and trade union figures but also women from the voluntary sector, academia and business.

Roundtable discussions around the country heard first-hand from older women as they sought to remain in the labour market while juggling a wide range of caring responsibilities or responding to continuing discriminatory practices in the workplace. 

As the British and Scottish governments decide their spending priorities for the year ahead, the voices of older women should inform those decisions.

Planning for the future should draw on the experience of the past. 

The key recommendations from the Commission on Older Women include: action to increase pay transparency and reduce the pay gap, including implementing the double discrimination provisions in the 2010 Equality Act on age and gender; recognising provision of informal childcare by working grandparents, including more flexible interpretations on parental leave; better support for carers in the workplace; a tailored support service for older women returning to work or entering labour market later in life, including ideas such as “returnships”; and improving the profile of, and roles open to, older women in the broadcasting media.

With Unite executive council member and Scottish Women’s Convention chair Agnes Tolmie as a member of the commission, Scottish voices were heard and included in some parts of the final report. But this also flagged up a lack of knowledge about older women in Scotland’s workforce, where they are mainly to be found, and what their priorities might be. 

When the Scottish Women’s Convention held a conference in April 2013 to discuss its scope and experiences, it was oversubscribed. We saw the same high level of interest at the STUC Women’s Conference in 2014. 

Therefore the STUC was happy to support the establishment in February 2015 of a Scottish Commission on Older Women.

While the Scottish Labour Party’s Margaret Curran took the initiative, the commission was clearly established at arms’ length from Labour or any other political party.

Chaired jointly by Morag Alexander OBE and Agnes Tolmie, and with representation from different industrial sectors, the voluntary sector and academia, the Scottish commission has been collecting recent experiences of older women in the workplace, in different communities and in self-employment, with the assistance of Women’s Enterprise Scotland, and analysing some of the limited existing data.

A lot of available information on the workforce isn’t separated clearly enough to tell us what is happening across Scotland, and of course the experiences of women in urban and in rural Scotland vary considerably. 

We heard of women struggling to manage changes in working practices, performance management and punitive “human resources” practices, increasing the workload of trade union shop stewards as they fought to keep older women in work.

Necessary adjustments were hard to secure. We heard of older women worrying that by staying in the labour market they were directly contributing to youth unemployment; that women had increased elderly care responsibilities at home while still needing their income from full-time employment; and of women’s health, both mental and physical, being put at risk.

The commission has also heard of positive changes in workplaces, which recognise that not all women are the same and that flexibility at different times in our lives can provide the security of remaining in employment, with continuity of pension and other protections; where employers and unions recognise the skills and experiences of older workers and devise ways of sharing, mentoring and training new workers.

Divisions between young and old are not in the interests of the labour movement or society as a whole.

The first report from the Scottish Commission on Older Women will be published later this month. The STUC looks forward to a wide-ranging discussion about its recommendations, along with those of the British commission. 

Scotland stands alone in Britain at the moment in seeing a surge in women’s employment. The STUC labour market analysis in April 2015, based on the ONS reports, highlighted that women accounted for all the employment growth in Scotland in the past two years.

Rising women’s employment has been a long-term trend in Scotland, including a notable rise in the 50-64 age group, and the figures also rising in the over 64 category. Why is this?

Anecdotally we hear of women struggling to balance more than one part-time job to sustain their household income, of rising household costs and loss of community and public service supports, and the consequences of a gender pay gap and inadequate pension entitlement.

These can mean older women are forced to work. We also know many women over the age of 50 do not want to lose their financial independence, nor indeed the roof over their head, and do not envisage leaving work.

Many more will also be making a contribution through unpaid work.

Improvements in health and in life expectancy will also bring expectations about longer working lives, and it is important that we discuss how to best to invest in our society to the benefit of all: benefits that bring choice and respect in later life, along with financial security, and options for full or partial retirement to meet women’s individual needs.

Remember too that the conditions faced by young people at work today will shape the future for the next generation of older workers. A living wage is seen as progress now, but earned for years it will not bring financial security.

Casual employment and poor working conditions have consequences. In the words of one older female worker: “When you’re young you don’t think that what you are doing at work on a daily basis may result in major health issues later on in life.”

So don’t stand to one side and leave this for someone else to sort out — it is a priority for the whole movement.

• Ann Henderson is STUC assistant secretary.