- Conference
- 2024 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 14 September 2023
- Decision
- Carried
Undertone racial tensions in the UK are so commonplace that it seems as if it is deeply rooted in our society and worst of all has the expectance of endurance to those on the receiving end.
In August 2022, TUC highlighted that within the working sector microaggressions come in the form of insecure work which encompasses zero-hours, contracts, agency workers without regular shifts and low paid self-employed workers. Little or no career progression, lack of training opportunities and being taken down the path of disciplinaries / sickness proceedings.
TUC research showed that that nearly 1 in 6 Black men workers will fall under insecure work. Black women are twice as likely to be on zero-hour contracts as white men and the total annual cost of pay penalties experienced by Black, Indian Pakistani/Bangladeshi men and women was estimated at a staggering £3.2 billion per year. Most affected are our non-white young members and women.
Microaggressions towards Black members are constant, continual, and cumulative they occur from the moment we take our first breath to the point where we breath our last. As a result, microaggressions can cause mental health problems in the form of depression, loss of confidence and as the TUC says everyone from government, employers, enforcement bodies and trade unions must work together to tackle this, and other forms of racism suffered.
Conference calls on the National Black Members committee to:
• Work with Learning and Organising Services to produce training materials to support Black members to identify microaggressions and empower them to challenge these in the workplace.
• Work with Learning and Organising Services to produce microaggressions training for activists in UNISON activists training programme, which will equip them with the tools to identify and represent Black members experiencing microaggression behaviour.
• Work with the Bargaining and Negotiating team to produce guidance, including using existing Health and Safety legislation for activists to support them with challenging this behaviour and negotiating robust policies which focus on zero tolerance of microaggression in the workplace.
• Produce an anonymous survey for Black members to report workplace racism and offer support. Use this survey to also research the scale and impact of microaggressions and racist bullying.
• Campaign through UNISON to strengthen the Equality Act so that it identifies microaggression as a direct form of discrimination. Alongside this, call for proper support for victims and appropriate and meaningful outcomes for perpetrators.