Harriet Harman unleashes positive discrimination
9:29am
Harriet Harman is about to let the spectre of positive discrimination out of the bag. The Equality Bill before parliament today gives employers the right to choose an ethnic minority candidate or female candidate over another a white male, specifically because they are an ethnic minority or female.
This is a mistake. A company should recruit on talent and that's that. If it discirminates on grounds of race or gender it is stupid and deserves everything it gets. Positive discrimination is a sure fire way to create resentment and will inflame the basest and most unpleasent prejudices, as illustrated by the Daily Express front page today, which shouts: 'White men face jobs ban as new law favours ethnic monorities and women'.
It's also interesting that Equalities Minister Harman is wheeling out the accusation that it's ingrained prejudice in business that is causing the gender pay gap. She must have forgotten the government's own Women and Work Commission, which was quite clear that this was not the overriding problem when it came out in 2006. Rather, it said better education for women was the key. In the interest of a good conspiracy, theory this pesky report cannot be accessed online because the link is down. Coincidence? The truth is out there.
Simon
June 26th, 2008 11:38am Report this commentMore votes for the BNP!
David
June 26th, 2008 12:33pm Report this commentLink is http://www.equalities.gov.uk/women_work/index.htm
though many links on the site are broken - I assume they have reorganised under the new equality commission or whatever it is and haven't done so compentently.
David
June 26th, 2008 1:04pm Report this commentReading the latest statistical report it makes very clear that any claim that there some kind of systematic discrimination is pretty hard to sustain:
Factors such as career pattern, education, etc make a huge difference.
In full-time work the gap exits primarily for 40+ women - there is little gap for 20-30 year onlys (even a male pay gap on one measure)
I suspect this is a mixture of (a) having children which wil remain an issue and (b) less education/opportunity/ambition for women in the past, which is working through system.
There is no pay gap among people working 20-30 hours a week, though part-time work pays less well than full time work. There is a difference for 30+ hours per week (employers data so may underestimate some peoples extra commitment)
Data is at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/elmr/04_08/downloads/ELMR_Apr08_Leaker.pdf
Your broken link is now: http://www.equalities.gov.uk/women_work/index.htm
Lots of broken links - Incompetent website reorganisation with creation of Equality Commission (or whatever its called) I suppose.
James
June 26th, 2008 8:50pm Report this commentThis is a 'political correctness gone mad' piece of legislation that will seek to destroy the very meaning of equality in the workforce. It not only patronises ethnic groups and women - it also violates the human rights of millions of British workers, whose career aspirations will be compromised by what is a deluded and desperate plea for diversification, which is being conceived by the most scandalous and anti-democratic bill imaginable.
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