Equality, diversity and rights at workplace in Westminster City Council - Essay Example

 Equal Opportunities policies have yet to eradicate inequality, discrimination and oppression in society (gender, class, ethnicity, age, disability, health etc.) – Critical Analysis of Westminster City Council Introduction Equality and right to equal opportunities are still evident and persistent in most of the places, be it at school, workplace, or society in whole. The exploitation of equal rights is more prevalent in places with diversified culture. Gender equality and women’s rights have gained growing attention over the past decades as a result of which international labor standards and national legislation have been adopted on a wide range of related issues (ILO, 2000). According to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2000) global inequality continued to grow over the 20th century and is still increasing in countries and between countries. OECD estimates that the quantum of inequality will be even larger by the year 2020 between OECD countries and poor countries. The gap in equality on global front is large, but the same gap persists within the nation on the basis of gender, class, ethnicity, age, disability, health, income, employment, etc. Witcher (2005) states that mainstreaming equality is done through incorporating equal opportunities issues into all actions, programmes and policies from the outset. This paper aims to present the issues of equality, diversity and rights at workplace in Westminster City Council by explaining the various legislations and acts protecting the rights of people living in United Kingdom. Various legislations have been enacted in the United Kingdom to eradicate the unequal treatment in the society. The first and foremost legislation, Equal Pay Act 1970, was passed to dismantle the roots of inequality in pay rates which were biased towards men as women were paid less comparatively while working in the same capacity as of their male counterpart. Later on various legislations like Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999, Gender Recognition Act 2004, Gender Equality Duty of 2007, Disability Discrimination Acts, Race regulations, employment equality (religion or belief) regulations 2003, employment equality (age) regulations 2006, were enacted and passed so as to provide equal opportunities and protect their rights to equality of vulnerable groups (www.gos.gov.uk). The recent legislation, Equality Act 2010 lays cross cutting legislative framework to protect the rights of individuals and promote equal opportunities to all and to eradicate discriminatory practices in the society (www.equalities.gov.uk). The act strengthens the previous equal rights acts of disability and employment by preventing the employers from screening the disabled applicant from the recruitment process (Government Equalities Office, 2010). The Equality Act 2010 addresses all the problems regarding equal rights and equal opportunities in the society including workplace (Government Equalities Office, 2010). Westminster borough is situated towards the west of London City and home of the UK government at the Palace of Westminster also known as ‘Theatreland’ which is home to numerous landmarks. It is official residence of Queen with Buckingham place in the boundaries (www.londononline.co.uk). The borough is an employer of choice, promotes culture, and provides a working environment free from all forms of discrimination and inequality like bullying, harassment and victimization (White, 2009). Consultation draft on Single Equality Scheme 2010-13 prepared by Westminster City Council mentioned that it is extremely diverse city attracting new migrants and most of the residents in the council are born outside the United Kingdom. The draft further mentions that more than half of its residents are non-white British, high proportion of residents are of working age, different religious beliefs, and nearly 15% of them have disability (www.westminster.gov.uk). Though annual report (2010) of Westminster city council boasts of promoting equal opportunities at workplace, discrimination is quite evident among the workforce as the percentage of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) has fallen from 23.10% to 22.95% while the same trend is seen among the disabled staff which has fallen from 2.23% to 2.18% which is far below the community level of 14.8%. The decreasing trend is evident since 2008 when BME percentage had fallen from 23.84% to 23.10% which occurred across wide range of categories including Asian and Asian British, Black, Chinese and other. Though there was descent increase in disabled staff in 2009, the number has marginally reduced in the current year (2010) (Annual Report, 2009). However annual report (2010) mentions few positive developments as percentage of female staff has increased from 68.35% to 69.04% which shows that city council is performing better in providing equal opportunities to women thus eliminating any change of gender discrimination. Further the increase in female staff is also seen in senior management positions while the number of senior management among disabled staff has not changed from the 2008. Discrimination is more prevalent in case of black and minority ethnic groups as senior management staff has decreased from 6.77% to 5.88% after a steep increase during 2007 and 2008 in the same category which is shown in the graph below. Figure 1; BME Staff in Senior Management Annual Report (2010) presents a clear picture of discrimination among BME groups in Westminster city council as the number of staff is decreasing year on year thus showing clear evidence of racial discrimination by not providing equal opportunity to employment as put forth in Employment Equality Act. Annual report mentions that BME applicants are less likely to reach the appointment stage as compared to white applicants. Overall workforce at Westminster city council has increased in Asian or Asian British and mixed category while staff under BME group, Chinese, and white have decreased as per the profile reported on 31st March 2010. This shows that appointment is radically increasing for the people other than BME group and Whites (Annual Report 2010). According the workforce profile in the Westminster city council, whites are employed more as compared to any other ethnic and minority groups but the staff is decreasing among whites whereas there is slight increase among the Asian staff. The council has been doing well to promote equal opportunities at workplace as it is clearly stated in table below which shows that female staff has been constantly increasing from 2009 onwards comprising about 69.04 percent of total workforce much above the community level of 51% while male staff is in complete contrast to female numbers and below community level of 49% with 30.96 percent (White, 2010). Table 1: Workforce at Westminster – Gender Profile Gender 31.3.2005 31.3.2006 31.3.2007 31.3.2008 31.3.2009 31.3.2010  2001 census Westminster %   No % No % No % No % No % No % Female 3625 68 3424 66.82 3374 68.04 3324 68.48 3,440 68.35 3387 69.04 51% Male 1705 32 1700 33.18 1585 31.96 1530 31.52 1,593 31.65 1519 30.96 49% Total 5330 100% 5124 100% 4959 100% 4854 100% 5,033 100% 4906 100% 100% Source: Westminster City Council, Annual Report 2010 According to Figure 2, whites are the most employed people in Westminster which is why whites are more in all job positions including school support staffs, casual, claims, LG, AST, tutor staff and in senior management positions. The placement of white candidates in senior management positions has increased by 10 people to 93.88%. It is pertinent to mention here that female population in senior management positions have improved gradually though male occupy 66.18% of senior management in the city council (White, 2010). It is further mentioned that most of the senior management staff are aged about 45 years and above whereas casual staff are appointed within the age group of 30 – 44 years. 54.55% of total casual staff’s employed in council are aged in that similar group while 68.38% in SMG group are aged about 45 years. This makes it clear that inequality in terms of age persists in the council as SMG employee are selected or promoted after 45 years or casual staff employed between the age group of 30 to 44 years (White, 2010). 82.20% of staffs working in city council are 30 years or older while 43.79% of all staffs are engaged for a period of 1-5 years of service bracket and 41.45% of all staff are engaged for more than five years service bracket. Regarding grade ranges, BME’s, female and disabled staff receive low rate of reward bands. These groups are higher at lower reward band which decrease on moving further the number of whites increase on each reward band which shows grave discrimination in job promotion (White, 2010). Inequality is persistent in internal and external recruitment as only 2.25% of Asian or Asian British applicants are appointed as compared to 5.65% of white applicants. The data collected from Annual Report of city council for the year 2009-10 reveals that there are very less application from BME groups as compared to white which comprises of 58.33% of total applications received out of which 55.39% only female and 11.76% have declared disability. Whereas in external recruitment (Table 3), the council 49.23% of applications from white and out of total applications received, 56.23% were female and 10.40% declared that they had some kind of disability (White, 2010). Table 2: Internal Recruitment Ethnicity Applied Shortlisted Appointed % of applicants/% of appointments   No % No % No %   Asian or Asian British 17 8.33% 11 6.75% 3 3.80% 17.65% Black or Black British 46 22.55% 35 21.47% 16 20.25% 34.78% Chinese 3 1.47% 3 1.84% 1 1.27% 33.33% Mixed 5 2.45% 4 2.45% 1 1.27% 20% White 119 58.33% 101 61.96% 55 69.62% 46.22% Other 7 3.43% 3 1.84% 0 0% 0% Not Known 7 3.43% 6 3.68% 3 3.80% 42.86% Total 204 100% 163 100% 79 100% 38.73% Source: Westminster City Council, Annual Report 2010 Table 3: External Recruitment Ethnicity Applied Shortlisted Appointed % of applicants/% of appointments   No % No % No %   Asian or Asian British 1345 14.85% 81 8.08% 17 7.17% 1.26% Black or Black British 1968 21.73% 201 20.04% 46 19.41% 2.34% Chinese 117 1.29% 13 1.30% 3 1.27% 2.56% Mixed 492 5.43% 47 4.69% 6 2.53% 1.22% White 4458 49.23% 589 58.72% 143 60.34% 3.21% Other 415 4.58% 26 2.59% 7 2.95% 1.69% Not Known 261 2.88% 46 4.59% 15 6.33% 5.75% Total 9056 100% 1003 100% 237 100% 2.62% Source: Westminster City Council, Annual Report 2010 Detailed analysis of above tables reveals that council has few applications from BME groups which prove that there is huge gap in equality of opportunities between ethnic groups and whites. Moreover, employee relations are also vague as the council has insufficient numbers/ percentage of disciplinary and grievance cases (White G, 2009). Findings and Conclusion Westminster city council with rich diversity and heritage made a sincere effort to provide equal opportunities to all irrespective of religion, race, ethnicity, gender, age, etc. but awareness is the key to elimination of inequality. As above data suggests, fewer applications from minority groups does not provide enough chances to the council to pursue their applications. However, the city council has been successful in eliminating gender discrimination as female workforce outnumbers male staff along with opportunities provided to disabled people as well. Age is yet another factor for consideration as certain age groups are appointed in SMG while white staff receives more reward bands as compared to BME groups. Though, the Equality Act 2010 provides legislative framework for employers to provide equal opportunities to all, awareness has to created among all groups of people in the society about their rights. In spite of numerous laws, legislations and acts, inequality still exists in the society in some form or the other as is evident in Westminster City Council. References 1. Equal Opportunities Legislation, Government Office Network, United Kingdom, http://www.gos.gov.uk 2. Government Equalities Office Equality act 2010: What do I need to know? A summary guide to your rights, http://www.equalities.gov.uk 3. Government Equalities Office, Equality Act 2010, http://www.equalities.gov.uk 4. Government Equalities Office, Equality act 2010: what do i need to know? A quick start guide to the ban on questions about health and disability during recruitment, http://www.equalities.gov.uk 5. International Labor Organization (2000) ABC for Women Workers’ Rights and Gender Equality, Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 24, No. 9, Geneva 6. OECD (2000) The creative society of the 21st Century, OECD forum for the future, OECD Publishing, France 7. Westminster City Council Single Equality Scheme 2010-13: Improving Opportunities – Maximising Potential, Consultation Draft, www.westminster.gov.uk 8. Westminster, The London Online, www.londononline.co.uk 9. White, G (2009) Annual Report 2008-2009, Human Resources Diversity and Equalities Workforce Profile and Monitoring Annual Report (1 April 2008 – 31 March 2009), City of Westminster, UK 10. White, G (2010) Annual Report 2009-2010, Human Resources Diversity and Equalities Workforce Profile and Monitoring Annual Report (1 April 2009 – 31 March 2010), City of Westminster, UK 11. Witcher, S (2005) Mainstreaming equality theories: Towards a generic model of discrimination, Centre for Research in Education Inclusion and Diversity, University of Edinburgh, UK Read More