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Woman's Hour: Equal pay judgement. Birth partners attending scans. Bangladesh at 50.

26/03/2021

Equal pay judgement. Birth partners attending scans. Bangladesh at 50.

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, Equal pay judgement. Birth partners attending scans. Bangladesh at 50.

The Supreme Court delivers its judgement on the largest ever equal pay claims.  Birth partners attending scans. Plus how women are marking Bangladesh's 50th year of independence.

Today the Supreme Court will give its judgement on one of the largest ever equal pay claims . It could have implications for women working in retail all over the UK. 
It involves those working in the supermarket Asda stores, who are mainly women,  who are being paid less than those working in the distribution depot, who are mainly men.  The case has been going on for over 5 years.    Reporter Melanie Abbott will tell us about its  implications for workers across the sector and we hear reaction from Wendy Arundale, who worked at Asda in Middlesbrough for 32 years. 

Since the start of lockdown many pregnant women have been campaigning to have their birth partners with them when they go for scans.  At the end of last year NHS Trusts in England changed their advice and said ,dependent on a risk assessment, they should do all they can to ensure pregnant women are accompanied. But those doing the scans, the sonographers, feel their rights have been overlooked.  One wrote a heartfelt letter about this to the professional trade magazine, headlined "We cannot allow professional ultrasound to become entertainment." Her hospital trust won't allow her to come on the programme.  But her views are echoed by Gill Harrison who is the professional voice for Ultrasound at the  Society of Radiographer.

Radio One’s Vick Hope presents a new BBC Sounds podcast called Songs To Live By, celebrating Black voices and experiences through the songs that shaped them.  In each episode Vick talks to two guests of different generations about the music that has defined them - personally, politically, musically.  She tells Krupa about some of the women involved and the music she enjoyed with her mum.

And to mark Bangladesh's 50th year of independence we talk to  BBC Asian Network presenter Nadia Ali and Shaz Aberdean, a community worker in Swansea.

Presenter Krupa Padhy
Producer   Beverley Purcell

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Equal pay judgement. Birth partners attending scans. Bangladesh at 50.

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