TUC Equality Audit 2022

Unions were asked if they had an equal opportunities or non-discrimination policy relating to their own employees – either general or referencing specific strands of staff.

Overall, 37 unions (90 per cent) did, compared to 33 unions (87 per cent) in 2018. The total included 100 per cent of the large unions, 86 per cent of medium unions and 90 per cent of small unions. For small unions, this is an increase on the 80 per cent recorded as having a policy in 2018. Thirty-six unions had a procedure for complaints related to breaches of their equality or non-discrimination policy.

Thirty-four unions (83 per cent) had an explicit reference to dealing with harassment/discrimination within their internal complaints, disciplinary or grievance procedures. This included 100 per cent of large unions responding to the audit, 79 per cent of medium ones and 81 per cent of small ones. For medium unions this is a decrease from 2018, while for small ones it is an increase.

The NASUWT says it deals with all complaints of harassment as misconduct issues. After consultation with women and Black staff members the union has reviewed and updated its complaints procedures to ensure that the investigation process is more robust. The BDA’s equalities and disciplinary and grievance procedures specifically reference examples of harassment/discrimination and how they will be dealt with, while Usdaw lists examples of potential gross misconduct in its Disciplinary Rules and Bullying and Harassment procedures, and also mentions harassment in its grievance procedure.

Some unions added that they had a specific policy on bullying and harassment or dignity at work or are currently developing one.

Fourteen unions said they had done specific work in the last four years in their efforts to prevent sexual harassment of staff, including training staff and establishing new policies and procedures.

The PFA, for example, has developed a consent training programme with information on sexual consent and personal integrity, while the FBU has established a working party to review processes following the publication of the Monaghan report into sexual harassment in the GMB. UNISON has trained staff to investigate incidents and to act as confidential advisers. Both Nautilus and BFAWU have conducted surveys, after which BFAWU established an organisational policy.

ASLEF has formed a special working group on sexual harassment, looking at the issue from a members’ and staff perspective. The group has developed a mutual respect statement and a sexual harassment procedure.

The NEU ran sexual harassment training for members of the senior management team in early 2021, delivered by a TUC-endorsed facilitator, with similar training rolled out to all managers later in the year. Sexual harassment training is now mandatory for all new line managers and forms part of the NEU’s annual staff training plan. The union also updated and reviewed its Equality and Diversity and Dignity at Work policies in consultation with staff unions and are running briefing sessions for all staff.

The NASUWT has adopted a range of measures since the 2018 Equality Audit. A Tackling Sexual Harassment and Misogyny Action Plan, approved by its national executive in 2020, includes processes for dealing with sexual harassment complaints from staff. The union has set up a reporting mechanism via a dedicated and confidential staff email account for reporting sexual harassment incidences and related issues. Zero tolerance on harassment posters are displayed throughout every office building. The union also has a new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy, which includes tackling sexual harassment, and a new women’s staff forum has been established.

Unions have provided a range of new types of training for staff in the last four years, with popular topics being unconscious bias, mental health awareness and anti-racism. Specific relatively new subjects run by individual unions have included understanding anti-Semitism, allyship, understanding sexuality, neurodiversity, equality impact assessments and responding to sexual harassment disclosures.

Staff pay and conditions

Unions were asked if staff pay and conditions have been reviewed in the last four years to ensure they do not discriminate against any groups. Thirteen (32 per cent) have done so to ensure pay and conditions don’t discriminate on grounds of sex, 12 (29 per cent) have checked on grounds or race, nine (22 per cent) on grounds of disability, eight (20 per cent) on grounds of LGBT+ status and 10 (24 per cent) on grounds of age.

The six large unions are the only ones legally required to report on their staff gender pay gap but a further five unions (three medium and two small) do so voluntarily. In addition, three unions report their ethnicity pay gaps and one its disability pay gap.

Thirty-seven unions (90 per cent) reported that all their staff were able to work more flexibly during the pandemic than beforehand, while another two said it had applied to some of their staff. However, just 29 unions (71 per cent) planned to have greater work flexibility post-pandemic than before it, with another six (15 per cent) saying this had not yet been decided.

Monitoring of staff diversity

As chart 11 shows, just 63 per cent of unions have statistical records of the number of staff who are women – a smaller proportion than did so four years previously. The latest figure includes 83 per cent of large unions, 64 per cent of medium unions and 57 per cent of small unions.

Just half of unions (51 per cent) have records of BME staff, compared with 55 per cent in 2018, while only 34 per cent do so for disabled staff, down from 45 per cent four years ago. 34 per cent have records for LGBT+ staff, the same as in 2018, while there is slightly better news in relation to records for age, now kept by 51 per cent, up from 45 per cent. In all cases the likelihood of a union keeping these statistics is lower the smaller the size band of the union.

This fall in diversity monitoring follows a decline already seen in the period 2014–2018.