News

A south London council has been accused of racial discrimination over claims that its staff redundancy plans are unfairly targeting black workers.

Trade union Unison claims that Lambeth Council's plan for a restructure of its Children Services Department (CSD) will hit black staff the hardest.

In a statement issued by Unison it's claimed that 'more than two in five black staff are at risk of dismissal, compared to less than one in three white staff.'

'This is a statistically significant difference and we believe that the Council’s legal duty to avoid race discrimination means that it must look into the reasons for this before pressing ahead’.

Unison claims that 42.5 percent of black CSD employees are at risk of redundancy compared to 29 percent of white workers.

Unison branch secretary John Rogers told The Voice: “It’s bad enough that they are making redundancies, but it’s completely outrageous that it is happening in a way that could amount to unlawful racial discrimination.

“The reason why it hasn’t been processed yet is because we have to authorize their proposal. Hopefully they will change it.”

Lambeth council have refuted claims of racism. A spokesman said: “As an organisation that has put equality and fairness at the heart of everything it does, it’s disappointing to hear these inflammatory claims, and we of course completely refute any claims of racism, which will only serve to unsettle staff at what is an already difficult time.

“Councils across the country are having to make savings, and in Lambeth we are looking to reduce posts in areas that will have least impact on services to our residents.

“We are in constant discussion with the trades unions to reduce the impact on staff and ensure that restructures are demonstrably open and fair, and we are undertaking full equalities impact assessments to ensure that restructures do not significantly affect any particular group of staff disproportionately.”

Published: 24 July 2010
Issue: 0

site comments powered by Disqus