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www.tuc.org.uk
Public Duty Requirements and the
Role of Unions
Sarah Veale,TUC, Head of Equality and Employment
Rights
www.tuc.org.uk
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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Public Duty Requirements• Statutory Code of Practice by EHRC
• Monitoring and enforcement by EHRC (resources)
• Role for inspectorates and regulatory agencies
