International EEO News
The glass ceiling is now rivalled by the sinking lid.
The number of female senior managers working in major UK businesses has fallen by more than 40% in the past five years.
A new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP shows that women are now 22% of senior manager-level posts in the FTSE 350, compared with 38% in 2002. The figures are based on pay data that records benchmarking information from 10,000 UK management roles.
The figures show that while the UK’s top 100 companies are managing to attract and retain women at the top levels, the proportion of women reaching the first rung of the executive ladder (senior professional) has almost halved (a 47% decrease.
A female pilot has won her battle to work reduced hours after British Airways gave up on appealing against a finding of unlawful discrimination.
The airline said it had now agreed to a reduction in her working hours to 50% and pilots in similar circumstances would be eligible for 50% contracts subjects to safety standards and operating measures being met.
Next time you’re eating a pie consider the lot of the workers who made it.
British research into the experience of ethnic minority workers in the catering industry reveals that ethnic minority and migrant workers are particularly vulnerable, in an area of “awful” work. Their vulnerability is compounded by:
- Limited knowledge of employment rights
- The perception that there is a ready supply of labour to replace workers who complain
- A lack of union organisation
- A culture of poor personnel practice
- Minimum training and poor information
The paper by T Wright and A Pollert also suggests a lack of monitoring or enforcement of employers’ compliance with legislation in this sector. www.acas.org.uk
Here’s a familiar EEO story about the rhetoric versus the reality. A survey of diversity professionals in the UK shows that diversity management is more cosmetic than real. The report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and development (CIPD) uses a scale to assess how sophisticated organisations are in their management of diversity. They found the average sophistication score to be 52 out of a possible 146. Despite the strong business case rhetoric of the private sector, such companies were found to be generally less sophisticated in their diversity management approaches than the public and voluntary sectors organisations. Diversity in business- a focus for progress available at www.cipd.co.uk/surveys
Deaf people are finding it difficult to secure paid work because of employer attitudes and the lack of awareness of jobcentre staff. A survey of 870 deaf and hard-of-hearing people found that it is not their deafness that prevents people from working. It is the lack of awareness and understanding of others as to what deaf people can do, according to research carried out by the Royal National Institute for the deaf in the UK. Opportunity blocked. www.rnid.org.uk
Despite a reputation for homophobia 13 police forces in the UK are among the top 100 gay-friendly employers. Staffordshire Police came second behind IBM. The annual workplace equality index published by the gay rights group, Stonewall, has banks and police forces dominating. Three major financial institutions, Lloyds TSB, Goldman Sachs and KPMG were in the top 10. The media were among the worst performing sectors with only Time Warner making it on to the list. www.stonewall.org.uk