Call for mandatory action plans for ethnicity pay gap reporting

Employers should be required to publish an action plan on what they are doing to reduce any ethnicity pay gap they might have, the Association of Accounting Technicians has told a government consultation.

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The AAT response to the government consultation on tackling the ethnicity pay gap also calls for the legislation to be extended to all employers with more than 50 employees. The gender pay gap legislation currently applies to employers with over 250 employees.

Thirteen per cent of the AAT’s over 140,000 members, identify as BAME. It recently conducted a survey of members which found that only 2% of respondents believe financial benefits would be a key benefit of Ethnicity Pay reporting. However, 10% believe it will improve company performance and 50% believe the key benefit is improving social justice. 21% think that all three of these benefits will be realised by Ethnicity Pay Reporting.

The survey also shows 47% of members would like reporting requirements to be applied to companies employing more than 50 employees and notably almost one in five (19%) would like to go even further, wanting Ethnicity Pay reporting requirements to be imposed on all companies employing more than 10 people.

Moreover, more than two thirds (68%) supporting the introduction of a legal obligation on companies to publish an
action plan.

Phil Hall, AAT Head of Public Affairs & Public Policy, said; “Those companies that voluntarily produce a Gender Pay Gap action plan are the types of companies that take these issues seriously and are committed to improvement anyway, the same will be true of Ethnicity Pay reporting. By compelling such action for all companies, those that seek to do the bare
minimum will be rightly challenged to do more.”

The Government consultation ends on 11 January 2018.

Meanwhile, the Department for Work and Pensions has launched a voluntary framework to help employers disclose the percentage of their workforce that has a disability or a long-term physical or mental health issue. It is also encouraging employers to “provide a narrative” explaining what actions they are taking to help recruit and retain disabled people.

On Tuesday, the union Bectu published a diversity action plan for the theatre industry. Some 90 theatres are said to have signed up to the initiative. Recommendations include the creation of union and management joint working groups and measures related to talent attraction.



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