This is about ending discrimination and ensuring the world of work is fair and equal for all
A motion passed by GMB’s Annual Congress in Brighton this week calls for legislation to force bosses to report their ethnicity pay gap – currently effecting 1.9 million BAME workers.
Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) workers currently lose a colossal £3.2 billion a year in wages compared to white workers.
The motions says racial pay disparity is not currently addressed at any level - be it in the gig economy, commercial, public, or manufacturing sectors and spells out the impact on the standard of living of BAME workers.
“It’s not about quotas or promoting people who don’t deserve it, it’s about an end inequality and unfairness.”
Taranjit Chana, GMB National Equality Forum Race Lead
Last year, it became law for companies with 250 or more employees to publish their gender pay gap.
Nell Andrew, GMB National Equality and Inclusion Officer, said:
“Mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting is a vital step in tackling in structural and inbuilt biases and, in some workplaces, dismantling institutional racism.
“Let’s start by having frank and transparent discussions with employers, based on comprehensive data, on the meaningful changes needed to recruitment and promotion practices, practices that currently mean that people of colour, especially women workers, seriously lose out.
“This is about ending discrimination and ensuring the world of work is fair and equal for all.”
Taranjit Chana, GMB National Equality Forum Race Lead, said:
“We know that BAME people excel in college and university but we don’t see this translated into the workplace.
“We know that BAME people are not represented in leadership roles, with only 6% of BAME people hold top jobs in the NHS and police chief inspectors at just 3%.
“It’s not about quotas or promoting people who don’t deserve it, it’s about an end inequality and unfairness.”
