Black Women and Employment

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Conference
2003 National Women's Conference
Date
24 October 2002
Decision
Carried as Amended

Conference notes the TUC’s report “Black and Excluded” which looks at black workers and pay.

The report notes that black women are disproportionately represented in certain sectors such as public health, education services and textiles, which are traditionally low paid sectors. Within these sectors black women are further disadvantaged by being concentrated in lower graded jobs. Evidence also exists to support the fact that many black women are involved in the ‘unofficial’ economy in jobs such as cleaning and in sweatshops that are very low paid.

Conference also notes the introduction of the Race Relations (Amendmendment) Act 2000 and the duty it places on public sector organisations to promote race equality – for their staff as well as in service delivery.

Women in general continue to earn less than men – their average earnings being just 81% of the average male earnings. As black women are concentrated in lower paid sectors, they face double discrimination in pay.

Conference calls on the National Women’s Committee:

1)to identify specific actions which they could take, to include:

·Amending the UNISON equal pay materials to include race dimensions;

·Contacting the TUC to seek inclusion of additional pay discrimination on the grounds of race in their training for equal pay reps;

·Seeking to include appropriate activities in stewards’ training which will raise awareness of this issue;

·Providing data and materials on the race dimensions of pay to the EOC to seek their inclusion in the EOC gender, pay campaigns, and

·

2)to work with the National Black Members Committee and UNISON’s service groups to ensure that the issue of double discrimination facing black women in the labour market is addressed when dealing with gender discrimination and when dealing with race discrimination.