What Next for Equal Rights?

Race Discrimination at Work

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Race Discrimination at Work

Presentation: Gloria MillsNational Secretary Equalities - UNISON

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Where Next for Equal Rights - Context•Government austerity measures rolling

back years of progress on equality•Inadequate and ineffective enforcement of

equality is leaving workers bereft of legal assistance and judicial remedy

•Privatisation and outsourcing – driving down employment protection and collective bargaining coverage

•In-Work Poverty increasing social exclusion and deprivation

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The Race Gaps in Employment•Discrimination and structural barriers in the

labour market contribute to three key gaps that amplify racial disadvantage:

•The Employment Gap – consistently lower levels of unemployment rates

•The Racial Pay Gap – the difference in average earnings between white and BME workers

•The Pensions Gap – made worse by the concentration of BME workers in lower paid jobs

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Race Discrimination leads to:

•Low Glass Ceiling – BME workers hitting low glass ceiling

•Low Pay – many are minimum wage workers (Low Pay Commission, 2013)

• Fewer promoted to middle management

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Lack of Ethnicity Data and Monitoring• Failure to systematically

collect data in Employment masks the extent and scale of race discrimination

• Understate employment and under-employment labour market participation rates

• Fewer cases of race discrimination

• Lack of strategic approach to race by EHRC

• Employers should be obliged to collect ethnicity data and report on the composition of their workforce

• Lack of a dedicated focus on race equality, for example, since the end of the CRE’s role on race equality and good relations work

• Diminution in work and enforcement on race discrimination

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Barriers in the Workplace

•BME workers experience multiple layers of disadvantage and discrimination

•Over representation in low paid work•High proportion in insecure, temporary,

part-time, agency and zero-contract jobs•High concentration in non-standard forms

of contracts

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Forms of discrimination which include:•Bullying• Performance & Development

Reviews• Capability•Training• Lack of access to training

opportunities•Redundancies & restructuring

Barriers in the Workplace cont...

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Race Discrimination at Work

• Complex Issues

• Subtle and Soft Forms of Discrimination

• Power imbalances shape daily interactions

• Informal work practices and cultures

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Labour Market Status by ethnicity – age 16-64Overall Labour Market Rates

• Total per cent• All Workers 72.9• White 74.5• Mixed Race 63.7• Indian 71.8• Pakistani 49.8• Bangladeshi 55.1• Chinese 58.4• Black/African/Caribbean 61.2(Source: ONS Labour Force Survey-

April-June 2014)

Participation rates by gender

• Men Women• 77.9 67.9• 78.9 70.1• 68.5 59.3• 79.6 30.1• 67.2 30.1• 78.6 28.3• 63.2 54.5• 65.3 58.4

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Unemployment Rates•Historically BME has higher levels of

unemployment rates – made worse in times of austerity and recession

•For white people – unemployment rates constant between 6-8 per cent

•Unemployment rates - all BME groups up from overall 14.5 per cent (Pakistani/Bangladeshi- 19 per cent)

•BME (age 16-24) – 33 per cent; Black Males (16-24) 44%

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Patterns of discrimination1.What do the statistics show?

2.What further actions are required?

3.What should be the bargaining priorities?

• Disproportionate levels of compulsory redundancies• Higher levels of redundancies than in total workforce • Higher levels of capability dismissals and procedures • High proportion of performance review dismissals• Bargaining on race equality

Challenging racism in practice

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Action to Challenge Race Discrimination in the Workplace•Research from the National Employment

Panel 2007 suggests that up to half of the BME employment Gap may result from discrimination

•From recruitment to redundancy – every stage of BME workers’ working life is tainted by race discrimination

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Action to challenge race discrimination in the workplace•Closing the BME employment gap

remains a key priority – to break the cycles of discrimination, disadvantage and deprivation

•Only 60 percent of working age people from BME are in employment

•This gap has remained largely unchanged for a generation

•in employment

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Council Black workforce %

Black Local Population %

Allerdale 0.4 1.1

Blackburn with Darwen

14.7 31.5

Trafford 6.1 14.9

Manchester 17.6 35.15

Eden 0 1.1

Copeland 0.6 1.6

Bolton 8.6 18.4

Statistics by local population and workforce – Black staff (Source: Census 2011)

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47% of councils saw disabled staff more likely to be made redundant

2011 Blackpool, Bury, Lancaster, Liverpool, Oldham, Rochdale and Warrington

2012 Trafford, Wigan, Blackpool, Bury, Cumbria, Lancaster City, Warrington, Rochdale and St Helens

Patterns of redundancies – disabled staff

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Areas with highest job losses

Liverpool 17.5% Copeland 14.9%

Knowsley 12.7% Tameside 12.4%

Wirral 12.3% Trafford 11.2%

Allerdale 11.1% Burnley 10.6%

Pendle 10.2%

Research from UNISON’s public sector FOIs in the North West

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Pay and gender

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Pattern of redundancies – women – FOI Requests

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Based on information obtain from FOI requests in the North West Region – disproportionate patterns of redundancies were highlighted

• 20 councils had less than 10% Black staff

• 5 councils Black workers represented 6.2% of workforce - 7.5% of redundancies

• Liverpool Black workers 6.6% of workforce - 11.5% of redundancies. • Black staff were more likely to be made compulsorily redundant • On average 30% of redundancies for Black staff in the region were compulsory 18% for white staff

Redundancy Patterns – Black staff

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A new robust approach to equal rights is needed to protection present gains on equality. Unequal access to justice is making it harder to challenge discrimination at work. Key priorities:

- Challenge the introduction to Employment Tribunal Fees (UNISON Judicial Review pending)

- Build union density in organised and non-organised work places – particularly in sectors where public services have been outsourced

- Widen collective bargaining coverage in workplaces bereft of collective voice and collective bargaining rights - Challenge trend towards individualisation of contracts and employment relationship

- Private Contractors should be obliged to bargain on equality and develop equality plans through collective bargaining with recognised trade unions (similar to the new French law on Equality, July 204)

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Public Sector Equality Duty • General Duties underused by the EHRC• Enforcement work need to be strengthened• Gaps in enforcement• Fewer Challenges of non-compliance• Systematic failures by public authorities remain unchallenged Enforcement Powers of the EHRC•EHRC should make stronger use of the Equality Act 2006 (sections 30 and 31) and Equality Act 2010 (section 149 – PSED)•EHRC should be required to report on its use of its enforcement powers•Launch investigation in sectors of discrimination•Public Procurement – a lever to promote good practice and change workplace culture•Re-introduce specific equality duty and EIAs

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