Monitoring is necessary for redundancy fairness

There should be mandatory monitoring by all employers to make sure ethnic minority women workers are not unfairly treated during the redundancy process, equalities national officer for the Unite general union Collette Cork-Hurst said recently.

Cork-Hurst was giving evidence to the all-party parliamentary group on race and community.

The group’s report on Ethnic minority female unemployment, published at the end of last year, was welcomed by the union.

Cork-Hurst said: “Unite did make this recommendation that there should be mandatory monitoring by all employers in redundancy situations to ensure equality and fairness for ethnic minority women.

“We also raised specific concerns on the impact of the recession and public sector cuts caused by the government’s austerity programme.”

She said many black women are losing their jobs in the public sector as they work on the frontline, particularly in the NHS and local government, where jobs are going first and fast.

She said it cannot be allowed to continue and for the already unacceptable levels of unemployment among ethnic minority women to get even worse.

“Ministers must take urgent action on the recommendations of this report, particularly the monitoring of redundancies by gender and ethnicity combined, and do more to tackle the labour market barriers faced by black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women, including racism.”