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National black members' forum newsletter

National black members' forum newsletter: August 2010 - Front cover The black members newletters contains all the latest news and key issues for black members.

A selection of articles are published on this page, and a PDF of the publication in full can also be downloaded from this page too.

  National black members' forum newsletter: August 2010 - PDF version  

 

 

Editorial comment

Welcome to the summer edition of Equality, Freedom & Justice. Who Is Phyllis Opoku-Gyimah? We would like to begin this edition introducing Phyllis Opoku-Gyimah. Who is Phyllis Opoku-Gyimah you ask? Phyllis is the new fulltime national officer who has overarching responsibility for the Equality Health and Safety section of the newly constituted Bargaining, Equality, Policy and Support Department (BEPS)

“I took up post in February 2010. I am based with my team at PCS Headquarters in Clapham, London. “Before my appointment to my present post, I was seconded to PCS to work as a negotiator in the Ministry of Justice Department inthe Law and Justice BargainingUnit, where I was the only black female negotiator. Prior to my secondment to PCS, I was a Civil Servant by profession, where I worked for the Department of Works & Pensions, Fraud Investigation Service.

“My current priorities are to contribute to PCS policies on equal opportunities by developing innovative workplace strategies
to tackle inequalities and discrimination for PCS members. negotiate with the Cabinet Office.I am the Secretary to the NEC
Equalities Committee and National Women’s Forum and I lead on issues relating to gender.

“I have always been committed to workplace equality and social justice because of that, it had secured me a seat on the TUC Race Relations Committee, in addition to a number of positions within PCS and PCS Proud, which is the representative voice for LGBT members.

“We now have a new coalition Conservative / Liberal Democratic government and we know that there will be job cuts, job cuts and more threats to our jobs.This is a time where we have to stand together as everyone will be affected by this whether you
are disabled, black, lesbian gay bi sexual or transgendered, a woman, of a particular faith / belief or age. “This is a quotation from Dr Maya Angelou that I use often: “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” Hence I know why we have to stand in together and not have divide and rule.”

Congratulations Phyllis, we wish you success in your new role!

The Equality Act 2010


The new Equality Act 2010 (EA2010) will come into force from October this year. The EA2010 aims to harmonize existing legislation and replaces existing anti discrimination laws, as well as streamline, strengthen and extend the scope of protection in employment, service and goods provision and public procurement.

The EA2010 provides protection from discrimination for age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation. People are protected from direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, discrimination arising from a disability, harassment, victimization, failure to make reasonable adjustments in order to accommodate a person’s disability.

The government has the power to delay the implementation of legislation clauses. The socioeconomic clause that has been much debated and misunderstood will probably be one of the first clauses that the Conservative/Liberal Democratic government will choose to suspend indefinitely.

The legislation will introduce a single public sector equality duty (ie public authorities to eliminate discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and good relations) that will apply to all protected characteristics (formerly equality strands) – but this will be delayed until next year. So until April next year, the single public sector equality duty will only apply to race, gender and disability.

Part of the delay is due to ongoing dialogue concerns potential conflict between sexuality and religion/belief rights. Unless the government seeks to resolve potential conflict under the umbrella of dignity and human rights, it will be difficult to see how interests under these competing rights will be reconciled.

In the employment field the EA2010 brings improvements for protection for disabled people and their carers; extends protection for people who are discriminated against because of their association with others who have a protected characteristic; permits employers to take positive action in recruitment and promotion; requires private sector employers from 2013 to report on the gender pay gap whilst rendering pay ‘gagging’ clauses unenforceable; permits discrimination claims to be pursued on dual protected characteristics and enables employment tribunals to make recommendations to employers to eliminate discriminatory practises even when the claimant has
ceased employment.

Definitions: All definitions of direct and indirect discrimination have been harmonized. This is an improvement for race as submitting a claim using the wrong definition could prove fatal to the success of a claim. Now one definition applies to whether a complaint is based on race, ethnicity, colour or nationality.

Double discrimination: The EA 2010 simplifies the procedure to pursue double discrimination claims. Existing law is one dimensional, people claiming double discrimination have to pursue two separate claim, running the risk that a weak aspect of a complaint may jeopardise the entire claim. The EA2010 allows a claim to be pursued on two grounds. For example, a woman of Pakistani heritage who is passed over for promotion and believes this is as a result of discrimination is currently forced to pursue her claim on two grounds, ie, sex and race. Both claims will fail if the employer can show that Pakistani men get promoted and white women get promoted. Under the new law she can argue that she faced discrimination on combined grounds of her sex and race, unless the employer can show that Pakistani women were promoted.

Gains & Losses: In comparison to ‘race’, every other equality strand/protected characteristic, has gained. Existing race legislation requires public sector equality organizations to monitor by ethnicity number of people in post; the outcome of recruitment exercises; outcome of promotion exercises; people who are provided with training opportunities; outcome of disciplinary and complaints procedures; outcomes of pay award systems and reasons why people leave employment. The EA2010 only requires monitoring of number of people in employment.

Government failure to engage with legitimate complaints: The government has been lobbied about the dangers of taking away existing protection It seems government ministers are more minded to listen to employers, despite evidence that suggests that protection needs to be strengthened. So taking all this into account, set against rising levels of unemployment, and research indicating that black workers are most likely to experience bullying, harassment and victimization, what impact will the weakening of protection have

Equality Impact Assessments: The specific duties, underpinning the legislation have yet to be finalised. These duties will contain the equality impact assessment provisions. In view of the imminent cuts programme, it is imperative that all decisions relating to cut proposals are scrutinized and subjected to thorough equality impact assessment assessments. It is crucial that negotiators are involved in the EIA process objectively assess the evidence that is presented to validate EIAs. There is a danger that the government will seek to significantly weaken Equality Impact Assessments in the new specific duties that will underpin the EA2010.

It is of interest that the Fawcett Society has launched a judicial review against the cuts programme because of the disproportionately adverse impact on women. Hopefully the Fawcett Society will meet with the same success as was the case when the Southall Black Sisters challenge against Ealing Council. That challenge confirmed once and for all EIAs have to be undertaken at policy developmental stages.