Equality Legislation For Chamber Link

This June Harriet Harman unveiled her “Framework for a fairer future” hitting the headlines with the prospect of legislation to allow “positive discrimination” in favour of women and ethnic minorities.

The new bill will allow employers to take “positive action” when choosing between equally qualified candidates. If a certain group, eg women, are underrepresented in their organisation they can redress the balance by appointing those people in preference to others.

There will be freedom to fast track people from underrepresented groups to the top jobs, provided, of course, they are equally suitable.

The issue of sexism in business is well documented but this legislation is not only about gender but about ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation. Inevitably however, the press have seized upon this Bill as leading to the possibility of positive discrimination primarily in favour of women.

Recently more and more women are being appointed to senior posts on their own merit but in spite of this, directors at board level in larger organisations remain predominantly male.

There are and always have been fewer women available in the pool of people seeking top jobs. Maternity leave coupled with part time working make it harder for women to be perceived as being in a position to fill more senior roles or to provide the “commitment” to see them through.

It could be argued that legislation reflects the changing values of society therefore it should not be necessary to legislate to force employers to redress imbalances. I disagree. The Sex Discrimination Act was a radical piece of legislation that made the changes, which have taken place in the last 30 years, possible. History has shown that, if human nature is left to its own devices without legislation, business and the professions would remain predominantly male, after all, they still are!

The legislation will tackle these issues on a number of fronts. Primarily they will use public sector purchasing power. Not only will public sector organisations be required to demonstrate policies offering equality in employment but they will require their suppliers to operate the same policies, thus extending the impact of government policy through out their supplier networks.

Secrecy about pay will be banned. Whether this will do the trick remains to be seen. British people are extremely bad at talking about money and when they do are prone to exaggerate or side step the subject of their own remuneration. The public sector have for years published their pay scales. The difficulty will be in the private sector as it will inevitably uncover inequalities and raise workplace disputes.

The government propose positive action such as mentoring schemes to assist minority groups to access high level employment. It currently sponsors 15 Pilot projects through the Union Modernisation Fund to help unions provide Equality Representatives. This is not new. Targeted groups such as women’s networks have become increasingly popular over the last few years. Plymouth Chamber’s own such group is popular with both female business leaders and sole trader entrepreneurs. Additionally, the Plymouth Women of Achievement awards is as annual event which recognises the achievement of women in many sectors.

The issue which seems to be ignored is the impact on the white British male who now feels as if he is the least popular group in the working population. Having enjoyed the dominant position in the market place for centuries the tide has now turned. Boys under achieved at school but managed to pull their socks up at university and get themselves into good jobs. Now they are outflanked by conscientious girls with higher expectations than ever before. A new generation of women have emerged who exceeded the academic expectations of their mothers and the achievements of their brothers. These women are working their way through to the top levels of commerce, industry and the professions despite the continuing existence of that old glass ceiling to keep them down.

Talent is talent regardless of gender, ethnicity or disability. We need every bit of it in order to become a prosperous and successful city.

The Equality bill will not only be a development on the existing equality legislation but will be a radical overhaul to redress imbalances that were not resolved in previous legislation.

Contact Caroline Mitchell for further information or advice.

Published 23/07/2008. The author of this article is Caroline Mitchell