Public
sector employers will have to monitor the ethnicity of their staff from next
month in order to stamp out race discrimination.
Those
public bodies with over 150 staff will be required to monitor the racial
composition of applicants, staff and those being promoted following the
implementation of the next stage of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act on 3
December.
Employers
will also have to monitor and analyse performance appraisals, disciplinary
actions, dismissals and resignations.
Francesca
Okosi, vice-president of Socpo and HR director at Brent Council, said,
"Communication to staff is critical to the success of the RRAA. In January
all of our managers will go on a seminar outlining the act and its
implications."
She
also urged organisations to make sure their monitoring policies also cover
sexual orientation, gender and age. "Local authorities have a duty to
engage the community they serve, and they want to attract the best staff.
Without checking procedures, we are unaware if we are creating problems for
ourselves," she said.
Employers
will have until 31 May to complete a race equality scheme outlining how they
will monitor race issue within the organisation. This follows the first phase
of implementation of the RRAA in April this year, which just placed a duty on
public bodies to promote race equality.
Seamus
Taylor, head of public sector policy at the Commission for Racial Equality,
explained that HR sells the business case to the rest of the organisation.
"Communication is absolutely vital and HR must explain to staff the
seriousness of the monitoring.
"Much
of the new legislation is good HR practice so for most employers it should just
be a matter of tweaking and refining existing policies and practices. We will
be issuing guidelines next month to assist them."
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