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Diocese of Leeds Justice and Peace Commission (1)

Tag: equality

Seeds of Equality

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by Sara Forrest, Commission Member

I was contemplating life, the universe and everything while watching the river Thurne when I noticed hundreds of seeds, floating from left to right with the tide. The ducks were paddling against the tide and eating many of them. Some seeds blew across the river and landed on the river bank, some on the green grass close to the river’s edge and some a bit further away onto the very yellow parched grass. A while later the direction of the tide changed and they changed direction.

It brought to mind the fragility and randomness of life and the recent gospel about sowing seeds. I like to think I like to think that I heard the message Jesus intended for us, the seed in the soil. The Jesus I follow consistently reached out to the poor and marginalised people, he believed in equality of opportunity. He also tells us that we are each a unique individual in the image of God , and we are much loved by God.  As a follower of Jesus that means I must respect the dignity and worth of every single person. I therefore struggle to understand how some fellow Christians seem to believe that it is OK to treat some people detrimentally just because they look different or act differently. Slavery is one example of this behaviour. 

It is noticeable that over time the notion of equality of opportunity has become embedded in some societies. After all, both religions and political parties are groups of people with strongly held beliefs that they enact the rules under which their community lives. Those rules lead to accepted behaviours that are visible. The underlying beliefs are not as apparent.

I feel I have more in common with those believers of other faiths who also interpret their Holy texts as promoting  the way of love and equality than I do with the fellow Christians who seem to interpret the Good News to allow them to exploit and discriminate against other groups of people. I feel it is dangerous when faith leaders openly support politicians who are promoting divisive policies that breed hatred and ignore injustice and intimidation within their community.

I then saw a photo of Benita Bowlding, a young black woman, in a newspaper. It was taken on Independence Day this year. She is sitting on a crowded metro train in Washington surrounded by members of the Patriot Front. They were white, wore baseball Patriot Front caps and masks so they could not be identified. They were travelling in connection with  a march through the streets and had not sought permission from the authorities. The administration did not condemn the march or seek to interfere. Their silence can be seen as granting  the Patriot Front permission to continue to act in such an intimidating way. The history of the rise of Nazism in Germany teaches us that over time a community that was settled and diverse can become divided and fearful because people are afraid to challenge.

I believe that in a just society Free Speech has to be limited to protect minorities from such intimidation. For me that is what Jesus tells us. In the UK we have limits on what is classed as acceptable free speech and our independent Courts make decisions where there is a dispute. I am thankful that we have such checks and balances. For me democracy relates to the structures of the way power is challenged within the administration, it is more than the one person/one vote system. I am so thankful that I live here in the UK.

Just as I feel closer to people of other faiths who think and act like me, I feel closer to countries who have control and command structures as well as independent structures of checks and balances. Without those a democracy can become more like a despotic regime. As a woman I experience vulnerability.

When I was a teenager, my parents warned me that I would be judged by the friends I spent time with. In Europe we have centuries of experience of Diplomacy and Foreign Policy, of gaining and losing Allies.  I hope that our Government will continue to seek to influence those allies who overstep the boundaries of what we consider to be right and just and to step aside from action that we feel does not fit with our values of tolerance and equality.

I pray that our Pope and clergy will continue to speak out, promote and support a world that is more equal.

Public Sector Equality Duty

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by Sara Forrest, Commission Member

The news is full of commentary with regard to the Equality Act 2010 which established the Public Sector Equality Duty.  I worked in Human Resources and my understanding of it is very different from what I have heard this week.

The Duty recognises that certain groups of people are, and have been, historically disadvantaged by our policies and laws. It states that it is a State responsibility to reduce the factors that have given rise to the disadvantaged so that we become a fairer country. The Duty says that Public Sector management must consider the different impacts of any changes in policy or practice to make sure that such disadvantages are reduced (or at worst maintained) if they cannot be proportionately and reasonably reduced.

The legal frameworks in the UK and USA are very different. 

UK legislation (excluding Northern Ireland) focuses on equality of opportunity e.g. every job is advertised openly and the best person appointed via a fair process which is altered to enable disabled candidates, for example, to compete effectively. 

In the USA the legislation creates targets. which can mean that a disadvantaged applicant who does not have the best match of skills and knowledge required to do the job well may be appointed in order to meet a target. This no doubt contributes to so much anti Diversity rhetoric spreading here from the USA.

For example, many years ago, when I worked in the private sector, I was concerned that the few recruits every year, in a city that had a high ethnic minority population, were white. Research showed that all our applicants had been white which indicated that the issue related to what our adverts said and/or where they were placed.

So I looked at why our office jobs may not be attractive to ethnic minority applicants. At that time the first level, non mandatory, professional qualification in our industry required 2 A levels or 5 GCSEs. So the next time we had an entry level vacancy we included that as a minimum academic requirement.

We got a more representative range of applicants. Within a few years our office was more respresentative of the area within which it was based.

Here is an example of how targets can alter discussions around equality.

In my first public sector HR role I remember a discussion about meeting the self imposed target of 10% ethnic minority staff (a political policy requirement before the 2010 Public Sector Equality Duty).  I suggested that given the age profile of the local workforce (most employees over 35) we should be moving towards a policy that those appointed to our entry level jobs - i.e. school leavers and new graduates , should reflect the proportion of that age group who were from an ethnic minority in the area. At that time any age based target for such jobs would have been significantly more than the 10%. The rest of the HR team said it was hard enough to get the 10% across the whole workforce and any change from that would not be acceptable to our political masters.  So the disadvantage of our local, young ethnic minority population was not addressed.

The ACAS website is good at explaining best practice for employers. Privilege persists where the selection process for recruits, training or promotion favours one group of candidates over others. In the UK employers must be able to demonstrate that a fair competitive process has been followed, that is not the case in the USA.

In both UK and USA political appointments do not follow the same rules which is a great shame. It’s still a ‘who you know’ environment of opportunity.

I am glad that we have at last identified that many young people are disengaged. In part due to State policies and systems which do not support them to flourish within our society. Alan Milburn’s report is an excellent example of the Public Sector Equality Duty in action. I look forward to reading his cross Departmental recommendations in the autumn. Though my niece and nephew who are long term unemployed are now too old to benefit from changes.

Very early in my HR career,  I remember being advised not to tell anyone outside the HR team that I did not think the Graduate Scheme Fast Track we were launching was unfair since our performance manage system was not as effective at identifying talented individuals within the current workforce as it could be. The HR Director’s advice - senior staff often paid private school fees to give their children an academic advantage and support their getting degrees, they naturally wanted to maintain that privilege for their children by reducing the number of competitors for such jobs. Luckily I was assigned responsibility for updating our performance management system and improving manager skills.

As Christians we need to carefully consider what we hear/read/see and think about situations in all their complexity. The world is a complicated place. Solutions are rarely either/or.