- Conference
- 2023 National Black Members’ Conference
- Date
- 30 September 2022
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that the cost of living in the UK has surged to crisis levels, with increasing energy prices, food prices and housing costs, against a background of wages which over the past decade have not kept pace with inflation.
Conference further notes the specific impact of the cost of living crisis on Black workers. A report from People Like Us in August 2022 found that Black people were disproportionately affected by the cost of living crisis, and that this disparity started in the workplace, where Black workers are systematically disadvantaged in relation to their white colleagues. One aspect of these disadvantages is the ethnicity pay gap, estimated by the Resolution Foundation to cost Black workers £3.2 billion in 2018. Since 2018, Black workers have only experienced increasing barriers as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
These disparities hit even harder for young Black workers. Conference notes the January-March 2022 ONS figures for unemployment across ethnic groups, which show that for those aged 16-24, unemployment rates stood at 20% for people of Bangladeshi or Pakistani origin, at 30% for people of Black African/Black Caribbean/Black British origin, but at 11% for people of a white ethnic origin.
Conference further notes the TUC report from 2018 highlighting barriers to young Black workers, which noted that in addition to higher unemployment rates for young Black people, young Black workers are more likely to be in insecure or precarious employment, are more likely to experience racist abuse at work, are less likely to be given positions on apprenticeship schemes, and experience a ‘qualifications gap’ which means that whatever their level of education or training, young Black workers earn less than white workers of a comparable education level.
Conference notes the strong work done to date by UNISON’s National Black Members Committee to campaign on the ethnicity pay gap and the other disadvantages experienced by Black people in the workplace, and the further important work done by UNISON’s Black Members Committee in highlighting the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on Black workers.
Conference believes that UNISON has a key role to play in addressing the impact of the cost of living crisis on Black workers, and the specific impact on young Black workers.
Conference asks the National Black Members Committee:
1) To continue to campaign on the ethnicity pay gap and to work with the National Executive Council to campaign for legislation addressing the ethnicity pay gap;
2)To highlight the specific impact of the cost of living crisis on Black workers, and on young Black workers;
3)In their work on the ethnicity pay gap and racism in the workplace, to highlight the additional barriers faced by young Black workers in the workplace, and to consider producing a factsheet highlighting the difficulties faced by young Black workers, and the ways that these have been exacerbated by the cost of living crisis;
4)To work with the National Young Members Forum to promote UNISON’s work on the ethnicity pay gap to young Black members;
5)To promote the importance of UNISON membership to young Black public sector workers, and promote the work that UNISON does to address the cost of living crisis, both by negotiating for higher wages and in campaigning against racial discrimination in the workplace.