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The Government wants to ‘name and shame’ racist employers in a bid to get more ethnic minorities into work.
A report by the Government’s strategy unit calls on the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) to make greater use of its investigatory powers to put the spotlight on employers with bad equality practices.
The report - Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market - also calls for the Race Relations Employment Advisory Service within Acas to be doubled in size and for greater transparency of data at employment tribunals to help highlight repeat offenders.
Surinder Sharma, director for diversity at Ford Europe, support the report's findings.
He feels currently the CRE does not do enough to help employers improve their working practices.
“The CRE has got to increase its work with private sector companies. It is important that they spend time and energy telling employers that it’s important," he said.
Surinder said Ford has increased its graduate ethnic minority applications from 6 per cent to 33 per cent in two years by improving equality practices. One-fifth of the graduates it recruited this year were from ethnic minorities.
The report also calls for the Government to work more closely with employers in cities with high ethnic minority populations to improve recruitment and retention rates.
The Government will set up a taskforce chaired by the minister for work, Nick Brown, to take the report’s recommendations forward.
Patricia Hewitt, trade and industry secretary, said: “A successful, high performing workplace recognises the value of tackling discrimination so that the widest pool of talent can be harnessed.
“The breaking down of barriers that hold back ethnic minority staff in the workplace can only improve an organisation’s performance and in turn boost the economy as a whole.”
