- Conference
- 2024 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 12 October 2023
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that within the public sector, almost 65% of workers are women and as more and more of the public sector is sold off, increasing numbers of working women are facing precarious and low paid work as a result. This is also an intersectionality issue with Black women and disabled women being disproportionality impacted.
Conference also notes that the Labour Party and trade unions, including UNISON, have co-produced the New Deal for Working People which will see a strengthening of worker and trade union rights within the first 100 days of a Labour Government, alongside “the biggest wave of insourcing of public services for a generation” which would reverse the race to the bottom that outsourcing has inflicted on hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers, disproportionately hitting women and Black workers.
Conference is aware that the privatisation and outsourcing of public sector contracts have been a failure for those dependent on them and for those employees delivering public services. Numerous reports have found that outsourcing contracts were poor value for money, carried huge social costs and often benefited overseas shareholders of multinational companies.
Conference is also aware that outsourcing usually moves employees from a job-evaluation-based, equality-proofed pay system in the public sector to a pay system where, managerial discretion over pay is higher, performance pay is more common and there is a complex array of groups of staff on different terms and conditions. Transparency around pay is also lower and these features make pay discrimination towards women more likely, and makes it much more difficult to identify and challenge.
Conference notes that most companies to which public services are outsourced state their intentions to provide pay and benefits that are in line with market rates which, for jobs predominantly performed by female, part-time workers are much lower than those in the public sector.
Conference understands that the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) is a duty on public authorities to consider or think about how their policies or decisions affect people who are protected under the Equality Act and that private organisations don’t have to comply with the duty. Therefore, where public services are threatened with privatisation or outsourcing, NHS Trusts, Local Authorities, Health Boards or integrated care systems, and others in England, Scotland or Wales should:
a)take ownership and accountability for PSED considerations when making decisions on commissioning and outsourcing decisions that affect the workforce
b)undertake and publish evidence-based Equality Impact Assessments which assess the impact that commissioning and outsourcing decisions will have on groups with protected characteristics
c)monitor contractors to ensure the required workforce data is provided
d)develop a procurement strategy that is equality impact assessed
e)consider ways in which the existing procurement process and duties can be used to improve compliance with the PSED’s general duty; for example, how they can be incorporated into principles of the Social Impact policy/Social Value Model/Social Value Wales Model and tendering and contract management processes.
Conference, therefore, asks the National Women’s Committee to:
• Provide and promote guidance on the Public Sector Equality Duty and the use of Equality Impact Assessments in relation to the procurement of public service contracts
• Provide updated resources and training to women’s officers, branches and activists
• Work with the National Labour Link Committee and the wider union to promote Labour’s New Deal for Working People within workplaces and communities