Public Duty Requirements and the Role of Unions Sarah Veale,TUC, Head of Equality and Employment Rights

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Public Duty Requirements Statutory Code of Practice by EHRC Monitoring and enforcement by EHRC (resources) Role for inspectorates and regulatory agencies