Race discrimination at work: the moderating role of trade unionism in English local government

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12214
• Published date: 01 May 2018
• Date: 01 May 2018

Race discrimination at work: the

moderating role of trade unionism in

English local government

Roger Seifert and Wen Wang

ABSTRACT

Workplace racism remains a serious issue despite over forty years of legislation

alongside a raft of HRM policies. There remains limited research on the differences

in employment experiences of British Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME)

staff and their white colleagues. There is a power imbalance at work as between in-

dividual employees and management, and this lack of equity has been traditionally

counterbalanced by strong workplace trade unionism. In particular, we know little

about the role of trade unionism on the perception of workplace equality among

BAME employees. Using more than 2,580 valid responses from full-time employees

in highly unionised local councils, this study shows that BAME employees have a

significantly lower evaluation than their white colleague of fair pay and equal work

environment. The latter fully mediates the negative perception between BAME staff

and fair pay; and furthermore, the perception of union commitment to equality

strengthened their views of a management-supported equal work environment.

1 INTRODUCTION

Employees perform better, carry out their allotted tasks to the required standard, if

they are more, rather than less satisfied with their general work experience. This in-

cludes, inter alia, pay, conditions of service (Charness and Kuhn, 2007), and some

nominal dignity at work (free from bullying and discrimination; Hodson, 2001).

Our central focus relates to the employment experience of a traditionally disadvan-

taged group, British Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff in the public

sector. Their ‘disadvantage’has been in part due to persistent and widespread race

discrimination at work in the UK (Dickens, 2007). One manifestation of this is the

existence of a substantial pay gap based on ethnicity (Chowdhury, 2016; Lewis and

Gunn, 2007). Such discrimination has persisted despite over forty years of legisla-

tion and regulation since the 1976 Race Relations Act alongside a raft of HRM

policy initiatives in this area.

To uproot deeply embedded race discrimination requires efforts from both the

government through legislation, and other parties’involvement in the workplace

(Hoel, 2013). Most measures taken so far tend to be top-down initiatives based on

❒Roger Seifert, Professor of Industrial Relations and Wen Wang, Senior Lecturer in Applied Labour

Economics, Wolverhampton Business School, UK. Correspondence should be addressed to: Roger Seifert,

Professor of Industrial Relations at Wolverhampton Business School, Wolverhampton, UK. E-mail: r.v.

seifert@wlv.ac.uk

Industrial Relations Journal 49:3, 259–277

ISSN 0019-8692

© 2018 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

unitarist ideology (government and CIPD reports), which ignore the power imbalance

between individual employees and employers (Hyman, 1994). Consequently, the role

of trade unions has been underplayed and under-researched. Although all mainstream

UK unions today have robust anti-racist and anti-racism policies and programmes, yet

BAME members remain disproportionally under-represented at workplace level

(TUC, 2014: 3). As a result, the debate inside unions has been narrowly focused on ac-

cess to work rather than experiences of work (TUC, 2017). The daily reality of racism

at work for many British BAME workers has been relatively neglected.

We aim to contribute to the debate in two ways by examining BAME workers’em-

ployment experiences. First, we explore the mechanism of perceived management

commitment to an equal work environment (EWE) on the relationship between

BAME and their evaluation of pay and job satisfaction, against persistent racism at

work. This will help to address the recruitment challenges faced by the public sector

due to relatively low pay (Chynoweth, 2015). Second, we examine the moderating

effect of equality-committed trade unionism on perceived management efforts to

maintain an EWE through the ‘shock effect’on managers by trade union activity.

This is derived from two important dimensions of trade unions in their relationship

with BAME workers: as policy makers and opinion formers (Fitzgerald and Stirling,

2004; Miles and Phizacklea, 1978; TUC, 2015a,b); and as representatives in negotia-

tions with employers (ACAS, 2014; Archibong and Darr, 2010). It then expands the

debate of trade unions’position towards their BAME members. In order to do so, we

collected 2,580 valid responses from 15,000 questionnaires attained from five English

local councils.

1

In the sections that follow, we reviewed BAME employees in the pub-

lic sector and the role of trade unionism to ensure equality implementation, this leads

to our testable hypotheses. We employed Structural Equation Modelling to analyse

the data. Based on empirical outcomes, we further discuss the issues raised and then

reach our conclusions.

1.1 BAME at work

The importance of unlocking BAME workers’talents has been illustrated in a re-

cent government-sponsored review led by Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith

(McGregor-Smith, 2017). It argues that fair access to employment for BAME

workers can boost the UK economy by £24 billion a year (1.3% of the GDP).

She also rightly pointed out the systematic and institutionalised discrimination to-

wards BAME workers that prevents such a contribution from being attained. Most

studies and policy interventions echo this line of debate: that long-standing inequal-

ity in accessing employment has disadvantages for all those involved (Virdee, 2006).

However, academic studies of BAME workers and their general attitudes to work

are few and far between. Lewis and Gunn (2007) reported that BAME staff in

the public sector experienced widespread discrimination, bullying, and harassment

from their line managers and colleagues, and this was compounded by discrimina-

tion towards ethnic minority workers from service-users (Wood et al., 2013). Eth-

nicity tends to lead to social exclusion at work as evidenced, for example, in the

emergency services (Owoyemi and Sheehan, 2011).

Trade unions have been more willing to ‘out’the existence of discrimination to-

wards their BAME members. In Higher Education, for example, BAME staff

1

This survey was funded by UNISON

260 Roger Seifert and Wen Wang

© 2018 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd