Facing Up To Discrimination
Here's an article I wrote more than tenyears ago for Business am - a new Scottish newspaper at the time which sadly lasted only a few years - before biting the dust.
I wrote for Business am on a regular basis - soon after I turned my back on a twenty-year trade union career - and long before equal pay came back into my life with a vengeance.
I was reminded of the Business am article while reading the apology of Lothian and Borders Police to the family of Simon San - who was killed in a racially motivated attack in Edinburgh in August 2010.
Simon San was a Chinese man who was set upon by a gang of street thugs - for no reason other than they took pleasure in teasing and tormenting him - because of his ethnic origin.
Lothian and Borders Police have now apologised for not treating the incident as a racist attack at the time - but the San family believe they have been denied justice.
Because their son's attackers were not charged - with an aggravated, racially motivated crime.
I agree with the San family - because casual discrimination in Scotland exists in many walks of walks of life - which is what the Business am piece was all about.
Ten years on I wouldn't change a single word.
But you can see even more clearly now - in 2011 - how the entrenched pro-Labour culture within the trade unions in Scotland - has worked to the disadvantage of ordinary union members.
Independent trade unions - not affiliated to any political party - would have stood up to the Scottish employers on equal pay.
The present lot didn't and, in reality, are incapable of doing so - while they remain so unrepresentative - and wedded to just one political party.
Facing up to discrimination
Accusations of discrimination strike a raw nerve these days. In the wake of the brutal murder of Stephen Lawrence no one wants to face the humiliation dished out to the Metropolitan Police. At the same time, the public reacts against the charge that prejudice is everywhere, on the streets, at work and in our homes. Surely, Scotland has a new politics; our public institutions don’t discriminate routinely against fellow citizens, do they?
These are murky waters indeed. On the one hand there’s no doubt that discrimination is an everyday fact of life. Police in Scotland recorded 2,242 racial incidents last year, a 70% increase on 1998/99. What are the implications of Lord McPherson branding the biggest force in the UK (The Met) institutionally racist?
No one accused individual police officers of racism in the Stephen Lawrence case since that would have missed the point. The public inquiry concluded that the Metropolitan Police failed in its collective duty of care; that Stephen Lawrence and his family were treated badly because they mattered less, because police officers were initially unsympathetic, because race and colour were unspoken issues.
In Scotland, the Chhokar family has also had to endure the pain of watching their son’s murderer go free, and the authorities are wholly to blame. The defence of the accused was hardly unique; pointing the finger at each other was predictable and should not have proved fatal to the prosecution case. How could such a basic mistake have occurred? The state now has to show this was not the result of casual prejudice. Although institutional racism is not about overt, deliberate acts, its effects can be just as powerful. Ultimately, it is hard to imagine the Chhokar family being treated so badly had they lived in Balerno or Newton Mearns.
The Scottish executive is resisting calls for a public inquiry. The Chhokars have voted with their feet believing there is little point cooperating with a judicial inquiry that fails to protect their interests, as they see them. The reputation of Scottish justice must be damaged by the failure to find an agreed way forward. Officials and politicians seem oblivious to the lessons of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. Exceptional cases require exceptional solutions; satisfying the demands of a grieving family is surely not beyond the country’s most brilliant legal minds.
Discrimination can be shocking, but it can be mundane as well, conditioned by a way of life. Reports confirm a pay gap still exists between men and women, despite legislation outlawing sex discrimination since 1975. Are nasty employers are to blame or is the problem more complex and deep-rooted? The uncomfortable truth is that much of the discrimination against women is structural, the result of how society organises itself. Women are still largely responsible for childcare. Stereotyping means that young women, even today, are more likely to become secretaries than managers. Changing these attitudes is the key to combating sex discrimination. Employers have a big responsibility, like everyone else, and deserve what they get for flouting the law, but the bosses are not alone.
Scottish local government is the country’s biggest employer with around 280,000 workers. Women dominate the lowest pay scales and have done for generations. Trade unions demand an equality led approach, equal pay audits to tackle the problem. The reality is that sex discrimination by employers is not the problem; women get stuck on the bottom of the pay ladder because society hands men and women different roles. Part-time cleaners (one of the largest groups) are trapped by jobs with few opportunities, not by glass ceilings. How about training people to become classroom assistants or teachers even, as adult returners to education, supported by proper childcare facilities? Now that would be radical!
Unions are often at the forefront of the equality debate. Unfortunately, their track record as equal opportunity employers is appalling. Most have far to travel before promoting themselves as non-discriminatory employers, particularly in Scotland. Equal opportunity employers reflect the local environment and believe in tackling any imbalances in the composition of the workforce. Why then are virtually all senior union officials active members of the Labour Party?
Embarrassingly, the answer is that unions institutionally discriminate against non-Labour supporters. An SNP or a Lib Dem supporter could be a typist in a Labour affiliated trade union, but not a manager. The movement is in favour of equal opportunities, but politics gets in the way of unions acting as good employers. In Scotland, a lot less than 40% of union members support the Labour Party, yet statistically impossible numbers dominate trade union hierarchies.
In polite company, people put their own house in order before telling others how to run their affairs. Trade unions are no exception, but would run a mile from an independent equal opportunities based audit of their employment practices.
800 words
Mark A. Irvine
I wrote for Business am on a regular basis - soon after I turned my back on a twenty-year trade union career - and long before equal pay came back into my life with a vengeance.
I was reminded of the Business am article while reading the apology of Lothian and Borders Police to the family of Simon San - who was killed in a racially motivated attack in Edinburgh in August 2010.
Simon San was a Chinese man who was set upon by a gang of street thugs - for no reason other than they took pleasure in teasing and tormenting him - because of his ethnic origin.
Lothian and Borders Police have now apologised for not treating the incident as a racist attack at the time - but the San family believe they have been denied justice.
Because their son's attackers were not charged - with an aggravated, racially motivated crime.
I agree with the San family - because casual discrimination in Scotland exists in many walks of walks of life - which is what the Business am piece was all about.
Ten years on I wouldn't change a single word.
But you can see even more clearly now - in 2011 - how the entrenched pro-Labour culture within the trade unions in Scotland - has worked to the disadvantage of ordinary union members.
Independent trade unions - not affiliated to any political party - would have stood up to the Scottish employers on equal pay.
The present lot didn't and, in reality, are incapable of doing so - while they remain so unrepresentative - and wedded to just one political party.
Facing up to discrimination
Accusations of discrimination strike a raw nerve these days. In the wake of the brutal murder of Stephen Lawrence no one wants to face the humiliation dished out to the Metropolitan Police. At the same time, the public reacts against the charge that prejudice is everywhere, on the streets, at work and in our homes. Surely, Scotland has a new politics; our public institutions don’t discriminate routinely against fellow citizens, do they?
These are murky waters indeed. On the one hand there’s no doubt that discrimination is an everyday fact of life. Police in Scotland recorded 2,242 racial incidents last year, a 70% increase on 1998/99. What are the implications of Lord McPherson branding the biggest force in the UK (The Met) institutionally racist?
No one accused individual police officers of racism in the Stephen Lawrence case since that would have missed the point. The public inquiry concluded that the Metropolitan Police failed in its collective duty of care; that Stephen Lawrence and his family were treated badly because they mattered less, because police officers were initially unsympathetic, because race and colour were unspoken issues.
In Scotland, the Chhokar family has also had to endure the pain of watching their son’s murderer go free, and the authorities are wholly to blame. The defence of the accused was hardly unique; pointing the finger at each other was predictable and should not have proved fatal to the prosecution case. How could such a basic mistake have occurred? The state now has to show this was not the result of casual prejudice. Although institutional racism is not about overt, deliberate acts, its effects can be just as powerful. Ultimately, it is hard to imagine the Chhokar family being treated so badly had they lived in Balerno or Newton Mearns.
The Scottish executive is resisting calls for a public inquiry. The Chhokars have voted with their feet believing there is little point cooperating with a judicial inquiry that fails to protect their interests, as they see them. The reputation of Scottish justice must be damaged by the failure to find an agreed way forward. Officials and politicians seem oblivious to the lessons of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. Exceptional cases require exceptional solutions; satisfying the demands of a grieving family is surely not beyond the country’s most brilliant legal minds.
Discrimination can be shocking, but it can be mundane as well, conditioned by a way of life. Reports confirm a pay gap still exists between men and women, despite legislation outlawing sex discrimination since 1975. Are nasty employers are to blame or is the problem more complex and deep-rooted? The uncomfortable truth is that much of the discrimination against women is structural, the result of how society organises itself. Women are still largely responsible for childcare. Stereotyping means that young women, even today, are more likely to become secretaries than managers. Changing these attitudes is the key to combating sex discrimination. Employers have a big responsibility, like everyone else, and deserve what they get for flouting the law, but the bosses are not alone.
Scottish local government is the country’s biggest employer with around 280,000 workers. Women dominate the lowest pay scales and have done for generations. Trade unions demand an equality led approach, equal pay audits to tackle the problem. The reality is that sex discrimination by employers is not the problem; women get stuck on the bottom of the pay ladder because society hands men and women different roles. Part-time cleaners (one of the largest groups) are trapped by jobs with few opportunities, not by glass ceilings. How about training people to become classroom assistants or teachers even, as adult returners to education, supported by proper childcare facilities? Now that would be radical!
Unions are often at the forefront of the equality debate. Unfortunately, their track record as equal opportunity employers is appalling. Most have far to travel before promoting themselves as non-discriminatory employers, particularly in Scotland. Equal opportunity employers reflect the local environment and believe in tackling any imbalances in the composition of the workforce. Why then are virtually all senior union officials active members of the Labour Party?
Embarrassingly, the answer is that unions institutionally discriminate against non-Labour supporters. An SNP or a Lib Dem supporter could be a typist in a Labour affiliated trade union, but not a manager. The movement is in favour of equal opportunities, but politics gets in the way of unions acting as good employers. In Scotland, a lot less than 40% of union members support the Labour Party, yet statistically impossible numbers dominate trade union hierarchies.
In polite company, people put their own house in order before telling others how to run their affairs. Trade unions are no exception, but would run a mile from an independent equal opportunities based audit of their employment practices.
800 words
Mark A. Irvine
