Equality and Diversity - Council employment information
The Council's HR service monitors recruitment and equality monitoring data is collected for job applicants and employees.
The information collected assists the Council to meet legislative requirements and to identify and eliminate any form of discrimination within its employment practices, helping to ensure that equality is a reality for every person who works, or applies to work, for the Council.
Recruitment
The council has a statutory duty, as a public sector employer, to publish employment monitoring statistics in relation to the composition of its workforce and the recruitment, development and retention of its employees.
The council continues to be accredited as a "Positive about Disabled People" employer and is accredited as a disability level 2 Employer in the Disability Confident Scheme which maintains our commitment to demonstrating that we take positive action to attract, recruit and retain disabled people. The council continues to support and promote our Disability Confident status on all recruitment packs and on the recruitment portal.
Minority Ethnic Recruitment Toolkit
The council has agreed to review recruitment and selection processes and practices by using the Scottish Government's newly developed Minority Ethnic Recruitment Toolkit.
The toolkit aims to consider how employers could improve their processes in recruitment to attract more people from minority ethnic communities to apply to their organisations and in turn help to address some of the systems and structures in place that act as barriers for those from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Equal pay statement
The council's Policy on Equality - Employment and Service Provision sets out the organisation's commitment to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and promote good relations between different groups.
A key consideration in meeting that commitment is the need to ensure that the council's pay, grading and benefit arrangements are transparent, based on objective criteria and free from unfair bias related to the protected characteristics covered by the Equality Act 2010. To achieve this objective the council will continuously monitor the application of its pay and grading systems with a view to identifying and eliminating any inequitable or unlawful pay practices.
The council will also monitor the application of other relevant employment policies and practices to ensure that they do not adversely impact on equality in respect of access to pay, benefits or career development.
By tackling the potential sources of pay discrimination and removing barriers to equality, the council believes it sends a positive message to both its workforce and customers alike
Race Equality in Employment
The Scottish Parliament's Equalities and Human Rights Committee inquiry of 2020 has highlighted the persistent issues that impact on outcomes for minority ethnic people in Scotland moving into, staying in and progressing in employment.
Their recommendations below highlight both systemic issues perpetuating race inequality in recruitment practice and in the workplace, as well as the need to improve practices such as the gathering and analysis of workforce data to inform action plans and determine measurable outcomes.
The Committee recommends that:
- those in public authority leadership positions undertake an assessment of their organisation's understanding of racism and the structural barriers that may exist within their organisations. Public authorities should integrate their ambitions into their next strategic plan. Their strategic goal should be underpinned by specific outcomes and supported by timely monitoring. Public authorities should be transparent about their targets and their progress in delivering their outcomes.
- public authorities should review their recruitment procedures and practice against the Scottish Government's toolkit and make the necessary changes.
- all public authorities subject to the Scottish specific Public Sector Equality Duty should, as a minimum, voluntarily record and publish their ethnicity pay gap and produce an action plan to deliver identified outcomes.
