The Government says it will ‘help’ organisations with ethnicity pay gap reporting but will not make it a mandatory obligation for businesses. Instead, the Government will pursue policies to improve inclusion at work.
Last year, the Government announced the membership of its Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, chaired by Dr Tony Sewell, with the purpose of examining inequality in the UK. The Commission controversially saw that the UK had become a “more open society” and that organisations were not institutionally racist and that diversity had increased in key occupations, including medicine and law. The report recognised the progress made towards Race and Ethnic Disparities but that we can go further.
What policies are the Government introducing in order to improve inclusion at work?
The Government’s recently published response, named Inclusive Britain, includes measures put in place to reduce the effects of bias and racial disparities across the UK. The policy paper says:
“We believe in the potential of every individual to succeed. We want to see the state and society provide the right support, and to level up around the country so that everyone from every community and in every corner of the UK, has opportunity. A person’s race, social or ethnic background must not be a barrier to achieving their ambitions.”
Their strategy to ensure equality and fairness is three-fold:
1. Ensure prejudice and discrimination have no place in our society (no exceptions and no excuses) – doing this by tackling discriminatory behaviour where it might exist, and adopting policies that build trust and promote fairness;
2. To promote equality of opportunity and encourage aspiration by nurturing agency – showing the path to success and removing personal and structural barriers which block the way (the agency ultimately drives success and achievement); and
3. Actively foster a sense of inclusion and belonging to the UK and the UK’s rich and complex history in an era of rapidly changing demographics, social media, increasing ethnic diversity, and advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and tech that are reshaping the UK’s economy and the lives of the UK population.
However, the Government has also made clear in the policy paper, that mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting will not be mandatory for employers “at this stage”, despite the widespread calls for it to do so.
One reason the Government said they were not making it mandatory is that they want to avoid imposing new reporting burdens on businesses as they recover from the pandemic and will instead support employers with voluntary reporting. However, it has not been made clear if or when this will be back on the agenda.
Guidance to employers on voluntary ethnicity pay gap reporting 2022
The Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is expected to publish guidance to employers on voluntary ethnicity pay gap reporting in the summer of 2022. Authors have said the publication would give employers the tools needed to understand and tackle any pay gaps within their business and ways to build trust with their employees.
Equality Hub 2023
The Government has also pledged to create an Equality Hub by 2023 in order to tackle unfairness and bias at work. The idea behind this is to try to create inclusion in a Work Panel. This will be a panel made up of academics and practitioners within a business and to go beyond just race and ethnicity to identify actions to promote fairness and inclusivity for all.
What should I be doing as an employer?
These reports of equality and ethnicity fairness in the workplace agenda remain somewhat vague. It is still not clear yet what the Equality Hub Work Panel will do and what timeline they are actually working towards. In the meantime, it is advised that employers continue to move forward with their own identified priorities and diversity and inclusivity programmes. Ensuring that all staff members feel included in their workplace is highly important for not just overall morale but employees are known to be more productive in an environment in which they feel happy and included.
Employers should always observe and comply with their legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010.
How can we help?
For further information or advice in relation to the subjects discussed in this article, please contact a member of our expert Employment Law team in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.
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