Transcript Document

www.tuc.org.uk
Public Duty
Requirements and the
Role of Unions
Sarah Veale,TUC, Head of
Equality and Employment
Rights
www.tuc.org.uk
Public duty
requirements
• TUC supports current duties on race,
gender and disability
• TUC welcomes proposal to extend the
duties to cover other protected
characteristics (age, sexuality, R&B,
gender reassignment)
• Duties place onus on organisations to
check their policies and practices
rather than relying on individuals to
bring claims
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Public Duty Requirements
• Potential of current duties not realised fully
• “Tick box” approach to procedural
requirements - procedures are important
however
• Lack of adequate enforcement
• “All respondents confirmed that the specific
duties had played a crucial role in achieving
change in their organisation” (EHRC survey)
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Public Duty
Requirements
• Since the inception of the duties
unions have played an active role in
raising awareness of them
• Providing information to them
• Seeking enforcement where they
have been violated
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Public Duty
Requirements
• Duty to consult unions in the current GED
• Duty to involve disabled people in the DED
• Evidence gathering requirements
• Impact assessment requirements
• Staff training in RED
• Consider objectives on gender pay gap
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Public Duty
Requirements
• Employment function – link between
public service delivery and workforce
equality
• TUC concerns that the four objectives
(use of evidence, consultation and
involvement, transparency and
capability) will not be put into
practice under current proposals
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Public Duty
Requirements
• Procurement – welcome specific
duties but need stronger statement
on face of Bill to say that equality
must be considered in public
procurement
• Final regulations must be laid before
this Parliament – to allow time for
familiarisation before April 2011 and
avoid destruction by a new
Government
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Public Duty
Requirements
• Which organisations are covered by
the definitions?
• Schedule 19 which lists them, should
be fully comprehensive
• Definition problems with
organisations such as the BBC
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Public Duty
Requirements
• Publication of equality objectives supported
but should also be a specific duty to gather
evidence for each protected characteristic
• Set out steps intended to achieve equality
objectives – must have written, accessible
equality objectives
• EHRC should also set out how it intends to
assess compliance and carry out enforcement
(Code of Practice)
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Public Duty
Requirements
• Within the business cycle and reviewed every
3 years
• Do need public bodies to set out objectives in
respect of each characteristic – will help to
prevent one characteristic taking precedence
over another
• Annual reporting requirements – should be
included in a Code of Practice
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Public Duty
Requirements
• Requirement to report gender pay gap,
ethnic minority and disability employment
gaps not acceptable
• Will not produce meaningful enough
information to assess performance; may
distort public bodies’ actions by
encouraging measures that look good, eg,
outsourcing low paid women workers
• Would ignore segregation problems for
BME and disability
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Public Duty
Requirements
• GED reporting requirements may be watered
down by proposal to merely report –
currently have to “consider the need to have
objectives that address the causes of any
differences between the pay of men and
women that are related to their sex”
• Current duty has helped unions to press for
full pay audits
• Mere publication of gap may allow easy
dismissal, for example, claiming it was
caused by women’s choices to work part time
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Public Duty
Requirements
• Do not support under 150 employee
exemption – weakens current RED and
wrong in principle
• Do not support proposal to use overall
median gender pay gap figure; prefer
use of the mean as previously used and
used elsewhere in the EU
• Would put part timers in with total and
mask the failure to make improvements
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Public Duty
Requirements
• Need to retain information about how
evidence was gathered (Southall
Black Sisters – no proper impact
assessment)
• Involvement and participation of
employees, users, etc
• Consultation with unions
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Public Duty
Requirements
• Procurement – terms in contracts and
disclosure of breaches of the law
• National equality standard must be
externally accredited
• Secretaries of State should report
every three years
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Public Duty
Requirements
• Statutory Code of Practice by EHRC
• Monitoring and enforcement by EHRC
(resources)
• Role for inspectorates and regulatory
agencies