- Conference
- 2024 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 16 September 2023
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that despite the significant numbers of Black workers in the frontline workforce, we are disproportionately underrepresented in managerial and senior levels and tend to be concentrated in the lower levels.
We know this is a product of institutional racism, which means Black workers are often overlooked for development opportunities and promotion.
Black workers face barriers in progressing to middle and senior management roles and this particularly impacts those on fixed-term contracts who are often overlooked or denied training and progression opportunities. Black workers are often more likely to be in fixed term roles due to discriminatory recruitment practices.
For disabled Black workers the block against progression is exacerbated by disablist attitudes and a failure to provide reasonable adjustments. UNISON surveys of our disabled members have found that about three quarters of our members say they have been refused some or all of the reasonable adjustments they need, and many have told us that they never even got a reply to their request for adjustments from their employer. Even where the employer did agree to provide reasonable adjustments, almost a quarter of our disabled members waited a year or more for these to be put in place.
This lack of access to reasonable adjustments sees disabled workers struggling to do their job and often needing to take time off sick. For both of these reasons they can find themselves blocked from training and progression routes, with their sickness record and performance issues often held against them despite the fact that the workplace is not a level playing field for disabled workers.
Conference believes that the combined impact of institutional racism and failure to offer reasonable adjustments means that Black disabled workers face a double whammy when it comes to progression and often end up on the bottom rungs of the pay ladder.
This is a key driver of both the disability and ethnicity pay gaps. Conference notes that UNISON’s National Disabled Members Committee held a webinar on tackling race and disability pay gaps in the autumn as part of the committee’s contribution to the Year of Black Workers and we welcome this intersectional approach to the issue.
Conference believes every disabled Black worker should have equal opportunities for professional growth and advancement, regardless of their background or employment status within their workplace.
Conference believes that we need to work with employers to encourage them to commit to fair recruitment and promotion practices, timely provision of reasonable adjustments and to challenging racism and disability discrimination in all aspects of the workplace.
Conference notes that UNISON has produced two bargaining guides that can be used by branches to negotiate reasonable adjustment policies and passports and disability leave agreements with their employers. As part of the Year of Black Workers, UNISON has also developed a useful toolkit which includes negotiating on fair recruitment and selection, redundancy and bullying and harassment.
Conference calls on National Black Members Committee to work with the National Disabled Members Committee to:
1. Work with branches, regions and service groups to seek ways of encouraging employers to sign up to a comprehensive approach to addressing the barriers to progression for Black disabled workers, including those on fixed contracts;
2. Circulate and promote UNISON’s Reasonable Adjustments Policies and Passports Bargaining Guide and our Disability Leave Bargaining Guide and encourage branches to negotiate for these policies with their employers;
3. Circulate UNISON’s Year of Black Workers ‘Negotiating Race Equality’ guides to seek to get these issues on the branch bargaining agenda;
4. Take an intersectional approach to tackling the ethnicity and disability pay gaps.