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

2. 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

3. 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)

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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)

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

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