The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain

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However, Dame Carol noted that society is beginning to realise the challenges that particular groups of workers face. “Gig workers, people who are caring – they all have needs we now recognise and many organisations are doing something about,” she told delegates to the conference. One example of increasing representation through the use of nudge measures such as mentoring is Liverpool City Council’s initiative ‘Step Forward - Step Up’. The programme, due to be launched in September 2021, will be delivered by a consortium of key city employers led by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool. Through a series of development modules (such as leadership development programme, mentoring and action learning sets), it will seek to develop and create a diverse talent pipeline in Liverpool. Participating employers support the programme by sponsoring participants’ fees, promoting career opportunities, contributing to modules, providing mentoring and committing to embedding diversity at all levels, among other things. This programme was developed in partnership with the successful model created by Bristol City Council’s ‘Stepping Up’ initiative, [footnote 67] a locally driven public-private collaboration to advance representation. business performance – inclusive cultures drive better decisions, productivity, innovation, creativity leading to better business performance Racism does not exist in a vacuum. It is multi-faceted, multi-layered and emerges from established values and practices that are deeply embedded within our institutions and structures. Often workplace racism is wrongly reduced to either a series of random one-off events and/ or the implicit attitudes and unconscious biases of an individual. The findings of this report remind us that racism remains a critical feature of workplace structures and culture and everyday working life for a significant number of people in this country.

Bar Standards Board, (2021), ‘Diversity at the Bar’. Available at: https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/uploads/assets/88edd1b1-0edc-4635-9a3dc9497db06972/BSB-Report-on-Diversity-at-the-Bar-2020.pdf ↩ Her quest for answers leads her to confront some difficult truths about her family life and her marriage. The NHS’s Work Race Equality Standard (WRES) is a series of indicators chosen to measure equality within the NHS. Evidence from WRES shows ethnic minority NHS staff are more likely to report personally experiencing discrimination at work from a colleague (15.3% of people who were not White, compared with 6.4% of White workers). [footnote 71] They are also more likely to report harassment, bullying or abuse (29% compared with 24.2%), and less likely to believe there were equal opportunities for career progression or promotion (69.9% compared with 86.3%). [footnote 72]Fairness at work, challenging existing approaches and examining alternative ways to promote fairness for ethnic minorities that leads to better outcomes and achieves inclusivity. Artificial intelligence, considering how to identify and mitigate bias in artificial intelligence, and use it as a tool to promote fairness. Data based on fewer than 3 responses is not shown. This is to protect people’s confidentiality and because the numbers involved are too small to make reliable generalisations. The ethnic groups used in the data British Business Bank, (2020), ‘Alone, together: Entrepreneurship and diversity in the UK’. Available at: https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/research-alone-together/ ↩ Civil Service statistics: 2020, Published August 2020. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/940284/Statistical_bulletin_Civil_Service_Statistics_2020_V2.pdf ↩

In terms of everyday racism, BME workers were asked to select all types of harassment that they have experienced at work in the past five years. Percentage and number of 16 to 64 year olds who were employed, by ethnicity (white and other ethnic groups) over time Dias, Joyce, et al., (2020), ‘COVID-19 and the career prospects of young people, Institute for Fiscal Studies’. Available at: https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/14914 ↩ a White applicant to a consultant job in Newcastle is more likely to be shortlisted and more likely to be successful at interview (relative likelihood 1.53 times)

New ways of working presenting challenges

EY, (2021), ‘Significant progress on improving ethnic diversity of FTSE 100 boards reveals new data from the Parker Review’, Press release. Accessed 16 March 2021. Available at: https://www.ey.com/en_uk/news/2021/03/significant-process-on-improving-ethnic-diversity-of-ftse-boards-reveals-new-data ↩ Confederation of British Industry, (2020),Bridge the gap: Actions your business can take to close the ethnicity pay gap, available at: https://www.cbi.org.uk/media/4931/12567_epg_guide.pdf ↩ of workers from the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group were in 'professional' jobs – the lowest percentage out of all ethnic groups Percentages have been rounded to 1 decimal point. This means some totals may not add up to 100%. Not included in the data Any comparison between the median of 294 employees with the median of 6 employees will be meaningless and is likely to change considerably just from adding or subtracting one ethnic minority employee.

more female BME consultants applied for the local CEA [footnote 50] (2017/18) and were more likely to be awarded CEAs, however the value of their award was the lowest level. ONS has found an issue with the collection of some of the occupational data. This affects the accuracy of the breakdowns of some detailed occupations, and data derived from them.NHS, (2020), ‘NHS workforce race and equality standard: 2019 data analysis report for NHS trusts’. Available at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/wres-2019-data-report.pdf ↩ Second, bias can enter the system in various ways. First, through data – for example, if a loan decision system receives data for a particular ethnic group that only contains default borrowers, the system may learn to use ethnicity data to unfairly deny loans to that group. Second, through the model; for example, unfair rules may be unknowingly hardcoded into the system (in practice, this is less common). Last, through decisions; for example, a system may give a fair output which humans may be more confident about than is deserved. For example, if the model predicts different hiring outcomes for the same candidate if only the value of the “ethnicity” variable changes, the output is discarded and not used. In the UK, relative to other countries, the costs to an employer losing a low-skilled, low-paid worker on health grounds and hiring another instead may be lower than in some other countries… A weakness of our system is people are missing out the support they need at a critical junction to stay in work,” she said. Queen’s Counsel (QC) are barristers or solicitor advocates who have been recognised for excellence in advocacy. They’re often seen as leaders in their area of law and generally take on more complex cases that require a higher level of legal expertise. (Definition from ‘The Law Society’) ↩

To paint a contemporary picture of BME people’s experiences of racism at work, the TUC commissioned Number Cruncher Politics to carry out polling on experiences of Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number, so some totals may not add up to 100%. Not included in the data During our evidence session with HSBC UK, we found there to be much goodwill and a desire to support under-represented communities bridge the gap of enterprise ambition with reality. There was an awareness of the disparities these groups faced and agreement that institutions who were committed, and working hard to support underrepresented groups through their journey, should benefit from additional support in doing so. After all, entrepreneurial success requires rounded support – this means financial investment accompanied by business support services such as mentoring, capacity building and network access. [footnote 99] b) The Commission also calls on the government to work with a panel of academics and practitioners to develop resources and evidence-based approaches of what does work to advance fairness in the workplace. The landscape of diversity training is highly mixed, and the government can play a role in guiding organisations to high quality materials and resources. In her review, Dame Carol came up with 10 recommendations to make work healthier, many of which have produced some clear results.a comprehensive breakdown of findings – highlighting areas of the organisation that are more or less inclusive than others Ending the hostile environment for migrants , including removing the international health surcharge ; The vast majority of those subjected to harassment do not tell their employer. Only 19 per cent of those who had experienced harassment reported the most recent incident to their employer. Those subjected to harassment were more likely to tell their family or friends (41 per cent), a work colleague (34 per cent), or do nothing (24 per cent). Only six per cent told their trade union – although this does rise to 20 per cent among trade union members.