Equal Opportunities Independent Review

Section 7

COMMUNICATIONS, STANDARDS OF SERVICE, WORK WITH EMPLOYERS, AND EQUALITY PROOFING

Communications

Perhaps inevitably we found that communications were not as good as they might be. For example on the meetings that were held round the country itself despite three mailings to branch offices, the number of people attending the meetings was relatively low, and many who attended said that they had only heard about the meeting at the last minute, or had learnt of the meeting by accident because the relevant information had not been passed to them by the appropriate branch official. As referred earlier this was not only a failure of communication but also possibly reflected the lack of priority given to this issue by branches.

However, in general as is the theme throughout this review there are some problem areas, but also some real achievements as well.

The various points that arose included:

Many of the equality officers complained that they very rarely received information that was relevant to them in their jobs. This was in spite of the fact that mailings should go direct to equality officers and not necessarily just the branch offices.

In our survey we asked branches about whether information had been circulated about equality issues within the branch.
YES 65%	NO 35%

The follow up question to this asked for further information from those who answered yes, about how such information was circulated. The majority simply said that such information was displayed on notice boards and distributed in the "normal way". Others (a minority) said that they included such information in regular branch bulletins and some of these had a regular column that dealt with equality issues. It is of some concern that 35% of branch officers said that they simply did not circulate any information on equality. This is surprising given that we are aware that there is a considerable amount of information passed on to branch officers from headquarters on equality issues.

We asked about the specialist papers produced by the two equality advisory committees, they are called DRUM and OUTtalk. We found that too often the members who should have received them simply had not. Clearly the intention is to ensure that these types of magazine briefings are sent to these members and work needs to be conducted to ensure that this happens in practice.
Another consistent complaint received was that when there were specialist events laid on some of the members did not know about these. Branch officials had not passed on the information to them.
The issue of the official trade union magazine 'Voice' was raised at several meetings. There were some criticisms that the magazine did not cover equality issues consistently or necessarily very well. There were also some specific instances referred to about what was seen as insensitive treatment by the magazine of gay and lesbian issues as well as race equality issues. The argument was accepted that equality stories should be featured regularly, but based around real events and real people so that they were newsworthy and interesting.
As referred to in other parts of this report there was a strong feeling from some members that the branches themselves were very remote, that they often did not know who the branch officials were and very rarely saw them. However, there were also other examples where the branch officials were seen to be on the spot and readily available to support and represent members.
Related also to the issue of communications is the issue of liaison and communication with local communities. As referred to previously many members and branch officers honestly stated that they felt ignorant about race equality and gay and lesbian issues.

Service standards

This was an area that was picked up in a number of ways and relates to the type of service that headquarters provide both to branches, and in addition, the type of service the branch provides to members as well. In some ways this area raises issue that are beyond the scope of this review. However, there are two points that emerged. First, in discussions there emerged a worrying number of instances where branch officials had complaints about having problems in receiving responses from headquarters to what they saw as perfectly legitimate requests. It should be added that this problem was raised by a minority, but still too often for what should be a customer driven organisation.

Second, one of the areas that we also explored was the type of representation that members received if they had a problem in relation to potential discrimination, or harassment or bullying. When contacting London about potential legal cases and tribunals, the consensus was that the service was effective and calls were responded to effectively. However, one of the problems that was referred to in several meetings, was that when there was an individual case that was referred up to HQ, the response was usually effective because there was a clearly designated group of staff that dealt with such work. However, when dealing with wider policy issues, they found that too frequently they had difficulties in receiving a response at all, and in obtaining appropriate advice.

Role of employers

Reference has already been made to some constructive work with employers and the union in respect of training initiatives. However at various times issues were also raised in relation to employers potentially being involved and having responsibility for potentially discriminatory practices and behaviour. Some members felt strongly about this. For example, one said:

"We see discrimination on a daily basis. If you have a problem with a manager, they close ranks. When a grievance is taken as far as it can go, they cover each other's backs, in our branch they tend to discriminate against one particular person. They see black people as trouble makers. They don't stop to listen to what you have to say. When we make complaints and the union takes it up, they are powerless as well."

It is undoubtedly the case that the CWU should be more proactive on equality issues with the employers. Often the union appears to be too passive in this area, perhaps sometimes a reflection of its own lack of confidence in dealing with equality issues. This is important, as although at a corporate level the main employers have strong policies on equality, at a local level we heard of many instances where these were not delivered in practice and there was possible evidence of indirect discrimination taking place.

Equality proofing

The issue of equality proofing arose several times in discussions with groups and also at headquarters. It is understood when this issue was raised within the union recently, there was some concern by individuals negotiating some of the agreements that other individuals would become involved and hold up the process and, in effect, start interfering with their negotiations.

However, our view is that such 'proofing' should not present a problem. Ideally all officers should have a basic understanding of equality and legislation and know when they are negotiating an agreement that there might be some implications on equality.

Survey: What more can the CWU do on Equality?

In our survey branches were asked in a final question whether they thought the CWU could do more in relation to issues relating to ethnic minorities and gay and lesbians.
YES 47%	NO 53%

On this, some branches felt that the CWU was very strong in the area of equality but also pointed out that improvements could be made. Other branches argued that the issues of equality need to be dealt with sensitively otherwise the issue could become a crusade and effectively have negative connotations attached to it. However, many of the comments that were written were mostly about how the CWU could do more in the area of equality. Such comments included the following:

One branch said that ways must be found to combat the inherent homophobia which seem to be prevalent amongst a large section of the membership.
Another branch said that the CWU should do more to promote the issues of equality and maintain a higher profile on the issue.
Other branches argued for more financial support being required and also argued that broader education should be provided on issues of equality for members and also that there should be better regional representation for ethnic minority and gay and lesbian people.
There is also a need to raise awareness amongst members on the issue of equality and to change attitudes that were still prejudiced in many situations.
Some argued that there needs to be more publicity about discrimination and much better training of local representatives.
Some branches argued for the need for more consistent monitoring and also a national distribution of material rather than just via branch officers. Suggestions were made that there should be more direct mailing to individual members.
Others argued that the 'Voice' could do more and they would like to see more true life stories and personal experiences that related to equality issues.
A final point was made that the education process and provision provided by the union needed to be more specifically targeted at ethnic minority and gay and lesbian people.

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