UNISON’s Anti-Racism Charter asks organisations to commit to taking anti-racism seriously in all processes, polices and procedures, training, progression opportunities, and in pay.
In a society where racism is systemic, being non-racist isn’t enough. Everybody has a role to play in actively challenging racial discrimination at its roots.
The Anti-Racism Charter has been developed to help organisations make a real difference to the lives of Black workers through challenging racial disparities in all areas of employment. It isn’t the work of a HR department or corporate think tank, but a grassroots document created by Black staff employed in the public sector.
“When we have approached organisations – and in particular Black employees in those organisations – to discuss the Charter, the overwhelming response has been positive. Often with the exclamation from staff: ‘Yes! This is exactly what we want to see!'”
Mumta Erkadoo (South East Regional Black Members Committee secretary)
By committing to the Anti-Racism Charter, employers and staff will work together to embed an anti-racist culture into the fabric of their organisation.
Anti-Racism Charter
Our organisation pledges we will introduce the following ongoing commitments within 12 months of signing:
Our leaders will
- Recognise the need and benefit in
championing a racially diverse workforce. - Challenge racism internally and externally
wherever it arises in relation to the organisation. - Recognise the impact of racism upon staff members’ wellbeing.
- Set and regularly review strategy to improve
racial equality, diversity and inclusion so that
the organisation reflects the communities it
serves.
Our organisation will
- Have a clear and visible race equality policy
championed by leadership. - Have a clear and visible anti-racism
programme of initiatives and actions. - Undertake equality impact assessments for
all strategic-level decisions. - Undertake ethnicity pay gap recording and
publicly publish results. - Undertake workforce ethnicity recording and
publicly publish results. - Provide unconscious bias and anti-racism
training for all staff members. - Provide a racism reporting process
for notifying, investigating and recording
outcomes. - Provide robust equality training for managers
involved in recruiting, promotions and
investigating allegations. - Provide a wellbeing support facility for staff
experiencing racism in the workplace. - Will be anti-racist, not just non-racist in all we
do.
Our equality auditing process will review
- Recruitment processes to identify and
address race disparities in equality of
opportunity. - Exit interview results to identify and address
race disparities in retention of staff members. - Promotional processes to identify and
address race disparities in equality of
opportunity. - Discipline and grievance to identify and
address race disparity in outcomes of
comparable cases. - Policies and research under a duty or
commitment to promote solidarity and tackle
racism. - Our mission, values, and support to removing
racial discrimination in all its forms.
Implementing the Anti-Racism Charter
We recognise the commitment and effort it takes to effect change, which is why the charter is set out over an achievable 12-month period. While implementing the charter we’ll work with you to make it a success, with lessons from working with other branches and employers.
We recommend allocating overall responsibility for the work to one point of contact in the employer and one in the union who meet regularly to discuss progress, seek solutions and/or advice as necessary. If there is an equality, diversity and inclusion group at the employer we suggest this forum has a vital role to play in the charters success. They will have valuable input into the process and should be included at the earliest possibility with reports being sent there.
