Equality Mapping is a strategic tool to help you analyse the workplace around the equality

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1 What is Equality Mapping? Equality Mapping is a strategic tool to help you analyse the workplace around the equality strands. There is no single model or way in which workplace mapping should be done. However, a number of different ways you can map your workplace are: 1) Drawing up floor plans and marking down the information where people sit. 2) Then break this down in terms of gender-how many men and women work in your department? Think about the jobs/grades- how many men and women are in each grade/job? How many jobs are full time and how many are part time? What is the balance between men and women in full time/part time jobs? Does your organisation employ agency workers? If so, in what jobs? How many black and minority ethnic workers does your organisation employ? What jobs are they in? Are you aware of any lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender staff? Are you aware of any disabled staff? 3) Develop a spreadsheet to keep and update the information you gather. 4) Collate monitoring data at events like Learning at Work Day, AGMs and Mandate Meetings in the form of a questionnaire, to accurately record the equality status of our members. In practice, it means breaking the workplace down into component parts to determine the level of TU density within your workplace. After mapping, it may be found that certain shifts or departments have little or no trade union members, and could be targeted for recruitment or equalities anomalies, TU representation or membership density.

2 Who does it? As mapping is about gathering information, all activists should be involved together with your Branch Organisers. Branch Organisers already map our workplaces in terms of male/female ratios and member/non member. Equality Mapping extends this process further to collate data from our diverse groups to ensure, we as a union are tackling underrepresentation. You don t have to collect the information in one go, but you can build up your database over time, extending and amending it as you go. Adapting Workplace Mapping for Equality. It is reasonably simple to develop the technique to analyse the workplace around the equality strands. Where industrial relations are quite positive, a joint approach between union and management may offer the most effective exercise. If industrial relations are poor the branch should map the workplace and use the information gained in a collective bargaining setting. What is most important is that you undertake the mapping exercise with the intention of collecting as much information as you can to help you plan your recruitment and organising work and build a stronger branch. Identifying Opportunities for Supporting Members. Where relevant equality status details are known within a workplace, this information can be used to map out whether issues such as gender, disability, race, sexual orientation, religion or beliefs, age, ethnicity, could be important to your members and any non members. Where needs gaps are highlighted, support provided by the union can only

3 benefit members but could also persuade non members to join, by making the union more accessible and relevant to their needs. Using data collated through equality mapping, can identify hidden talent from some groups of staff who would not necessarily have been identified for development roles by their managers. Identifying and removing barriers to inequality. The employer will hold a wealth of data on its employees in order to monitor its Equality Duties. As part of the Equality Monitoring operated by the employer to meet its Duties the equality data held should be readily separated in order that detailed comparison between the constituent groups is possible. PCS also holds a wealth of information in its membership system (Commix).Equality mapping the workplace is an essential tool to PCS Equality Officers and the Union as a whole, as it enables PCS to identify trends, patterns that may exist. Doing the Duty. The Equality Duties cover three primary areas: Race, Disability and Gender. They came into force at different times (Race in 2002, Disability in 2006 and Gender in 2007). Although they are separate pieces of legislation they share common themes and objectives- to eradicate unlawful discrimination and harassment, as well as actively promoting Equality. This applies to policy making service delivery and employment by public bodies. The Duties fall into two categories General and Specific. General Duties-cover the vast majority of public bodies and are geared to eradicate discrimination and harassment, whilst actively promoting equality. Specific Duties- The specific duties give public authorities a framework for meeting the general race, disability and gender equality duties. They build on existing law and good

4 practice but go further by requiring action to prevent inequalities. The EQIA process forms part of this framework and must be done to ensure discrimination does not occur. The employer should be conducting equality mapping for any policy, procedure, practice or plan they want to introduce or amend. This forms part of the Equality Impact Assessment criteria, as for an employer to carry out the initial screening they need to have evidence to demonstrate they have analysed the composition of the workplace in terms of gender, race, disability and LGBT and assessed the impact of the change on a minority group. The EQIA process is broken down into 4 key stages: 1) Equality Mapping/Monitoring Date. 2) Initial screening 3) Prioritisation 4) Full impact assessment (EQIA). Equality Mapping the workplace is a key component of the EQIA process and as well as the employer collating monitoring data, it is important that PCS representatives do the same. Checklist of when equality mapping should take place. Employer/Workplace Policies & Standards. Employers have their own equality policies and standards and problems occur when they are not reflected in the workplace. An essential part of mapping exercise is to test if employers are putting into practice what they are putting onto paper. Recruitment Policies & Practices.

5 A good mapping exercise will take into account equality issues that may arise prior to employment even starting. Are the recruitment policies and/or practices discriminatory themselves? Do job advertisements directly or indirectly discriminate against any particular group or strand? Induction Processes & Procedures Do the induction policies and procedures apply equally to all groups? If so, are all policies and procedures implemented equally? Internal committees representation. The word committee is used to describe any internal structures where decisions are taken. Mapping should look at the makeup of decision making committees to assess if equality issues are raised, discussed and decisions taken on the basis of understanding. For example, are disabled employees represented on discussion and decision making committees on issues such as reasonable adjustments? Access to Training. Mapping should take into account any direct or indirect discrimination that may take place in relation to access to training and information for any particular group. Grades & Promotional Opportunities. A key element of mapping for equality is looking at job segregation and promotional opportunities. For example are women segregated into lower status jobs, with little or no opportunities for promotion? Does direct or indirect discrimination take place by a

6 recruitment strategy that segregates employees into jobs and grades with little or no long term prospects? Does access to training, or lack of access, impact on promotional opportunities? General Contractual Terms & Conditions. Mapping for general contractual terms and conditions is an overview of how direct or indirect discrimination may take place on issues such as pension rights, holiday entitlement, overtime, rates of pay, redundancy selection, duty of care, sickness benefits etc.the main aim of mapping is to assess if general contractual terms and conditions are equally applied across all the equality strands.