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Parents and politicians joined together on the steps of the Senedd today calling for better paternity leave and support for new parents.
In a campaign organised by Anna Whitehouse (Mother Pukka) and The Dad Shift, similar strikes took place in 13 locations across the UK including in Edinburgh, London, and Belfast on Thursday, August 27.
Protesters came together to call for flexible working by default, and a minimum of six weeks’ paternity leave at 90% pay, including for the self-employed.
In a post shared on social media, The Dad Shift said the aim was to make it “the biggest parents’ protest in British history”.
In Cardiff Bay, parents and children gathered alongside Senedd Members on the steps of the Welsh Parliament holding placards with slogans such as “More time, more pay, more dad” and “Q: What’s the worst Dad joke? A: UK paternity leave”.
The Cardiff protest was supported by the Women’s Equality Network Wales (WEN Wales), which described the UK as “failing” parents in a social media post promoting the campaign.
“No-brainer”
Plaid Cymru MS Sarah Rees began campaigning for better parental leave and flexible working when she was made redundant on maternity leave more than a decade ago.
Speaking after the protest, the Pen-y-Bont Bro Morgannwg MS said: “My daughter is now 12, coming up to 13, and I didn’t think that we would be fighting this long, that a decade on I would be passing that baton to the next round of parents.
“What’s fantastic is that we’ve got dads involved, we’ve got dads leading this event because we know that parenting isn’t a mother’s job. We need two incomes to make a house work. A single parent can tell you that more importantly than anyone else. The levels of poverty for single parents in Wales is shameful and the way to tackle that is to improve things like the cost of childcare which Plaid Cymru are proudly doing.”
She continued: “But also we need to look to the UK Government and to tackle some of those things, which is why we’ve all come here today – along with people across the UK – because it’s really important that we see right from day one that dads and non-birthing parents are involved in parenting and they’re seen as part of that.”
Ms Rees was joined by fellow Plaid Cymru MSs including Kiera Marshall, whose own daughter is less than a year old.
Labour’s Huw Thomas also spoke at the event, sharing his experiences as a father to a seven-year-old and a five-year-old.
Speaking after the protest, he said: “Before I was elected I was leader of Cardiff Council, which is a busy job in its own right, and balancing that as a dad, doing right by my kids, doing right by my wife, it’s a real challenge, particularly at younger ages.”
Mr Thomas also highlighted some of the work being done by the UK Government in terms to improve support for new parents.
He added: “Let’s recognise the improvements that the UK Labour government are bringing in with the Employment Rights Act. You will now have access to paternity leave from the first day of employment.
“That’s 32,000 dads that benefit from that, but I think we all can recognise we need to go further.
“We’ve got declining birth rates in this country, that will put additional burden on services in coming decades unless we can support families to feel able to have children.
“So what this strike is about, and the call for action, is a no-brainer for me.”
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