Immigration in UK
STRANIERIINITALIA.IT| Progress made on race equality, but more action still needed |
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Barber: Extend equality duty into the private sector
18th January 2010: TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber has welcomed the statement on race equality saying that “the introduction of the duty on public bodies to promote race equality has undoubtedly made a real difference to the way in which our schools, police forces, NHS and local councils serve and employ people from ethnic communities.” He, however, pointed out that more will always need to be done. He gave the example of the private sector where employers are not required to promote race equality. “With instances of jobseekers with non-English sounding names not being selected for interview and black and Asian employees complaining of being passed over for promotion, an extension of the equality duty into the private sector would make those employers whose discriminatory views belong to another century change the way they operate,” Mr. Barber said. GMB also agreed with Mr. Denham that experience of race discrimination had changed in the last ten years. “Dealing with the issue of poverty and deprivation as the common experience between ethnic minorities and the white community is the new challenge facing Britain,” Kamaljeet Jandu, GMB National Officer for Equalities said. He gave the example of the growth in the mixed race marriages as one of the changes so far witnessed. “Though there is an increase in number of ethnic minorities in professional employment such as law, IT and medicine, the indicators of race discrimination remain stubbornly high. Unemployment remains twice that of the national average, the lack of promotion and workplace harassment is also a disproportionately common experience for many ethnic minorities. “Therefore there remains a challenge for John Denham and the Government to reduce workplace related discrimination and ensure genuine equal access to jobs as well as to accelerate the process of ‘mainstreaming’ ethnic minorities in society,” Mr. Jandu said. RELATED ARTICLE Denham: Ethnic minorities "no longer automatically disadvantaged" |