- Conference
- 2017 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 10 October 2016
- Decision
- Carried
Conference as we all know the pay gap between men and women is widening, but it will come as no surprise that the pay gap for Black women is even greater.
37.6% of Black workers are in occupations which are traditionally low paid and dominated by women – cleaning, care work and catering, compared to 29.6% of white workers. These occupations are also among those most adversely impacted by the increase in the casualised workforce and the use of zero hour contracts, both of which drive down pay.
Conference welcomes the recent challenge by seventeen homecare workers employed across the London Borough of Haringey, and backed by UNISON, who are taking care company Sevacare and the council to court in a dispute involving illegal wages, over the widespread non-payment of the minimum wage.
The workers’ zero-hours status means most have previously been too scared to complain about their treatment, conscious that if they did, they were likely to have their hours reduced, be given no work at all or victimized for complaining.
General Secretary Dave Prentis states that “The blame for the social care crisis must be laid at the government’s door. Ministers must get tougher with enforcing the law so firms aren’t able to cheat their staff. More money must be put into care so that councils are not forced to tender contracts at a price they know decent care cannot be delivered.”
A 2014 National Audit Office report suggested that as many as 220,000 homecare workers may be being paid an illegal wage. Evidence suggests that national minimum/national living wage non-compliance is endemic across the social care sector.
The idea behind a living wage is very simple: that a person should be paid enough to live decently and to adequately provide for their family. At its heart is an ethical argument for preventing in-work poverty and ensuring workers are not exploited through low wages.
As austerity hits even harder the pay gap for Black people and in particular Black women will continue to grow. It’s a problem recognized by the Government, with Theresa May announcing an audit to tackle public sector racial disparities. The scheme will look into how race might affect how people are dealt with in areas such as work, education and the NHS. However, we don’t need more data to tell us what we already know, that race does affect how people are treated within employment, that many hard working Black women are to be found on the lowest rung of the ladder. What is needed now is direct action to redress this inequality.
Conference calls upon:
1) The National Women’s Committee (NWC) to work with the National Black members’ Committee (NBMC) in conjunction with the NEC to raise awareness of the disproportionate impact of low paid work on Black women;
2) The NWC to work with the NBMC to encourage regional representatives to work with their regional women’s committees in raising awareness and campaigning on the issue;
3) The NWC to work with all appropriate bodies in UNISON to promote UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter.