1. Fair Treatment at Work Survey The Fair Treatment at Work Survey Equality and Diversity Forum, London, 18 July 2007 Grant Fitzner Director, Employment Market Analysis and Research Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Web pages: www.berr.gov.uk/employment/research-evaluation grant.fitzner@berr.gsi.gov.uk

2. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Structure of presentation About the survey – What is the FTWS? Design of FTWS –sample design, survey structure, survey content Unfair treatment at work Discrimination at work Workplace bullying Sexual harassment Concluding remarks

3. Part 1: ABOUT THE SURVEY

4. Fair Treatment at Work Survey What is FTWS? First British survey of employees to explore unfair treatment, bullying and sexual harassment at work Asks questions on two levels: –about personal experience (self) –and about awareness of treatment of others in workplace Used to explore all six equality strands –and many other potential causes of unfair treatment

5. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Fieldwork Cognitive and pilot test Main fieldwork – November 2005 to January 2006 Nearly 4,000 face-to-face interviews achieved Boost of sub groups: ethnicity, young, old, religion

6. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Aims and objectives Comprehensive survey of unfair treatment, discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment Robust and reliable statistical instrument –and a discrete set of questions in future surveys Statistically representative sample Of sufficient size to do breakdowns A baseline for monitoring and evaluation Contribute to DTI’s research programme on the nature and causes of racial discrimination at work

7. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Caveats This is a complex survey –seven major questions –two different population bases The survey reports employee’s perception –these are subjective,and will vary between individuals and groups Care must be taken when interpreting these findings

8. Part 2: UNFAIR TREATMENT AT WORK

9. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Question 11 In the last two years with your employer, have you PERSONALLY been treated unfairly because of any of the following? Age Gender Nationality Religion Race or ethnic group Sexual orientation (e.g. gay, straight, lesbian, bi-sexual etc.) Disability Long-term illness Marital status Political beliefs Colour of skin Physical appearance The way they dress Being pregnant Union membership Accent or the way they speak Address or where they live Social class Other No

10. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Incidence of personal unfair treatment Around 1.6 million or 6.9% of employees said they had personally been treated unfairly at work in the last two years Only small differences by sex, religion or sector But disabled employees twice as high (15%) Gay, lesbian and bisexual also high (14%) Also differences by race/ethnicity –Black employees (12.5%) –Asian employees (8.0%) –White employees (6.5%)

11. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Employees reporting personal unfair treatment at work in last 2 yrs, by type

12. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Incidence of personal unfair treatment, bullying and sexual harassment Around 2.1 million or 8.9% of employees said they had personally experienced unfair treatment, bullying or sexual harassment in last 2 years Only small differences by sex – 8.0 per cent for males vs. 9.9 per cent for females Disabled employees very high – 19.7 per cent vs. 7.6 per cent non-disabled Also differences by race/ethnicity Non-white (11.2%) White employees (8.6%)

13. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Unfair treatment of others at work One in seven (14.0%) employees who worked with others said they were aware of others at work being treated unfairly More likely to be reported by: –disabled employees (21%) –gay, lesbian or bisexual employees (18%) –black employees (17%) –public sector employees (17%) But 85% of all employees neither experienced unfair treatment themselves, nor aware of any other person at work being treated unfairly

14. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Unfair treatment at work in last 2 years

15. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Unfair treatment by industry

16. Part 3: DISCRIMINATION

17. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Incidence of discrimination at work Around one in every thirty employees (3.5%) reported discrimination at work, as defined here Of the six equality strands, disability and long- term illness was the most common (1.2%) Followed by race-related discrimination (1.1%), gender (0.9%), age (0.8%) and religion (0.2%) Sexual orientation was lowest –too small to be reported

18. Fair Treatment at Work Survey

19. Part 4: WORKPLACE BULLYING & SEXUAL HARASSMENT

20. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Incidence of workplace bullying Almost one million employees (3.8%) said they had personally experienced bullying or harassment at work in the last two years Women (4.9%) more likely to have been bullied than men (2.8%) Even higher amongst disabled employees –especially high amongst disabled women No significant differences by age or ethnicity Over one in ten (10.6%) of employees who worked with others said they were aware of others at work being bullied or harassed

21. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Bullying at work in the last two years

22. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Incidence of sexual harassment Much lower than bullying –only 9 in every thousand employees (0.9%) More women (1.1%) than men (0.7%) –though men account for two-fifths Disabled employees five times as likely as non- disabled to be sexually harassed Managers twice as likely as non-managers Almost 4% of employees who worked with others said they were aware of others at work being sexually harassed

23. Part 5: SUMMARY

24. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Some key findings for researchers Black and disabled employees suffer a much higher incidence of unfair treatment than other groups Unfair treatment on the basis of long-term illness was twice as common as for disability Almost one million employees have experienced workplace bullying in the last two years –and particularly high for disabled women Younger workers are more likely to report age discrimination than older workers Two-fifths of those sexually harassed are men

25. Fair Treatment at Work Survey A mixed picture Vast majority of employees (85%) say they are are unaffected and unaware of unfair treatment But a sizeable minority of employees have experienced some form of unfair treatment in the last two years

26. Fair Treatment at Work Survey A complex picture Some types of unfair treatment and discrimination seem quite straight-forward (e.g. age) Others are more clustered (e.g. race) –race and ethnic group, nationality, colour of skin Unfair treatment is not evenly dispersed –appears to be clustered in certain workplaces –and among specific groups

27. Part 6: FUTURE RESEARCH

28. Fair Treatment at Work Survey Related EMAR research Second Fair Treatment at Work Survey –some scope for extension –looking for research partners Maternity and Paternity Rights Survey 2007 –unfair treatment of women due to pregnancy 2006 British Social Attitudes Survey Work-Life Balance Employer Survey 2007 Vulnerable workers research Equalities Data Review Task Force

29. DISCUSSION