Structural inequality defines COVID impact

Unions have welcomed recommendations set out by Baroness Doreen Lawrence in her Labour Party-commissioned review into how people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds were being impacted by COVID-19.

She concluded in her report, An avoidable crisis, that BAME people have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic as a result of “decades of structural injustice, inequality and discrimination”.

Gloria Mills, national equalities secretary for the UNISON public services union, said the findings and recommendations reinforce UNISON’s demands.

These include an urgent plan for tackling the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on BAME communities this winter and the introduction of a national strategy to tackle health inequalities backed by strong actions.

They also include ensuring workplace-related COVID-19 cases are properly recorded; strengthening COVID-19 risk assessments to ensure consistency and to give workers more confidence; and improving access to personal protective equipment in all high-risk workplaces.

Commenting on the report, NASUWT teaching union general secretary Patrick Roach said that while prime minister Boris Johnson had promised to ensure employers are COVID-secure and COVID-compliant, “the evidence of racial disparities points to the contrary”.

For months, the union has been calling on the government to publish its assessment of the racial equality impact of its decisions on the reopening of schools, but the government has refused to do so.

“Without clear, coherent and concrete action by government to address the racialised impact of this pandemic, the cycle of discrimination and racial injustice will continue,” Roach said.

https://www.lawrencereview.co.uk