Public Duty Requirements and the Role of Unions

Public Duty Requirements and the Role of Unions Sarah Veale,TUC, Head of Equality and Employment Rights

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Public Duty Requirements • Statutory Code of Practice by EHRC • Monitoring and enforcement by EHRC (resources) • Role for inspectorates and regulatory agencies

Public Duty Requirements and the Role of Unions