ASIAN, black and other minority ethnic workers’ presence in unstable jobs more than doubled between 2011 and 2022, according to a new Trades Union Congress (TUC) analysis report released yesterday (14).
It showed that over the last 11 years to 2022, the number of minority ethnic employees in unstable work more than doubled from more than around 360,000 to over 835,000.
The study showed that black and other ethnic minority men were twice as likely to be in insecure work and their female counterparts also fared less well when compared to white females.
Insecure work is defined by the TUC as low pay, variable hours and fewer rights and protections for workers.
Caring, leisure, process plant and machine operations were all seen to have the highest proportions of insecure work in the UK, according to the report.
It further stated that there were high numbers of ethnic minorities in these occupations and that it was evidence of “structural racism in action”.
Polling revealed that almost half of all BME workers had experienced some discrimination at work with 14 per cent reporting having faced unfair criticism at work in the last five years and 12 per cent reporting being denied promotion.
The TUC put forward several recommendations to tackle what it called this “structural racism in action”, including a ban on zero hour contracts and “bogus” distinctions between self-employed and employed which mostly benefitted the employer; a right to flexible working and a system for monitoring minority issues with ethnicity gap reporting, recruitment, retention, promotion and other issues all addressed systematically.
Paul Nowak, TUC General secretary said: “Across the labour market, and at every stage, BME workers face discrimination and persistent barriers at work. These barriers lead to stark inequalities – and it’s why we’re seeing BME workers disproportionately in the worst jobs with the worst pay and conditions.”
He called on the Government to address the issues raised.
It has yet to respond to Insecure Work in 2023 – the impact on workers and an action plan to deliver decent work for everyone.
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