Training and development of Black workers

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Conference
2013 Energy Service Group Conference
Date
26 February 2013
Decision
Carried

Conference is concerned about the lack of development opportunities for Black members working in the Energy Industry. For instance British Gas Business Spinneyside have a large proportion of Black members, most are on L8 with less L7 (team managers) and fewer at senior management and above. This is disproportionate considering the number of Black members working on this site.

Conference believes that the employer has a duty of care towards its employees, particularly under-represented groups to ensure that relevant training is made available to progress within the organisation.

In these challenging times of financial constraints, it is likely that most employers will not have a training budget despite the proven benefits in increased productivity by making available training and development opportunities for their workforce.

Conference notes that racism is still in existence in our society and workplaces. The pervasive nature of racism continues to blight the employment and promotion prospects of Black people.

A workforce should be representative of the diverse communities that it serves and joint work undertaken to increase applications from all communities, decrease the skills gap and remove barriers to promotion and development for Black workers

Conference therefore calls on the Energy Service group executive to work with the National Black members committee to:

• Highlight the difficulty faced by Black members to access training in the Energy Industry

• Remove barriers to progression by increasing training and development opportunities available to Black workers in the sector, including working with the sector skills councils