On 31 March, the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities released its delayed report into racial disparities and inequalities in the UK.
The report includes several recommendations that employers should be aware of:
- To advance fairness in the workplace, the Government should make available more resources and evidence-based approaches of what works to advance fairness in the workplace.
- To investigate what causes existing ethnicity pay disparities, the Government should require the publication of a diagnosis and action plan for organisations that voluntarily publish ethnicity pay figures. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy was recommended to produce guidance for employers to draw on.
- The Equality and Human Rights Commission should be given funding to use its compliance, enforcement and litigation powers to address policies or practices which cause racial disadvantage or are caused by racial discrimination
The Commission also recommended that organisations move away from unconscious bias training. It recommended existing training be replaced with new interventions. New guidance on these interventions are set to be piloted in the Civil Service and will then be made available to employers.
The report also recommends that the term “BAME” should not be used, in order to better focus on understanding disparities and outcomes for specific ethnic groups.
The report has been widely criticised for downplaying institutional racism in the UK.
