Employers fear Equalities Review diversity policy recommendations

Employers are fearing the worst from the Equalities Review, due to be published on 28 February, claiming they have not been fully consulted on future diversity policy.

The Equalities Review, led by the Commission for Equality and Human Rights chairman Trevor Phillips, was set up in 2005 to investigate persistent discrimination in the UK.

There has been growing speculation that it will call for more responsibilities to be placed on private firms when it submits its recommendations to the government.

David Yeandle, deputy director of employment policy at manufacturers’ body the EEF, told Personnel Today that firms were worried as they felt they had not been consulted by Phillips’ review team.

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“We are concerned about the whole diversity area, and there has not been much employer engagement,” he said, “although there does seem to have been lots of lobbying [from pressure groups].”

Phillips said in December that special measures were needed to promote diversity. adding: “Some areas of employment will never stop being all-white without new kinds of positive action.”