The Equality and Human Rights Commission has recently published the results of its research into race discrimination in the construction industry, launched in January 2009. The report - Race Discrimination in the Construction Industry Inquiry Report - revealed a range of poor recruitment practices that block ethnic minorities from entering the industry.
Using a combination of evidence-gathering questionnaires, interviews and research, the Commission found that:
- Non-white ethnic minorities are no less likely than white people to want to work in the construction industry. However, levels of representation remain low across the sector. Non-white ethnic minorities make up just 3.3 per cent of the workforce compared to 7.9 per cent nationally
- Despite positive initiatives across the industry to increase diversity, the level of non-white ethnic minority representation has gone up by only 1.4 per cent in ten years
- There are problems with the image of the industry - perceived by a third of non-white ethnic minorities who were surveyed for the report as more racist than other industries
- Non-white ethnic minorities tend to be less aware of the potential range of roles and opportunities within the sector
- Word of mouth recruitment remains a significant barrier to both employment and access to some aspects of training
- A lack of job or career progression and problems making the transition from training to work appear to be major factors involved in non-white ethnic minority underrepresentation.
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The report makes 31 broad-based recommendations for key issues to be addressed to improve representation of non-white ethnic minorities in the industry. These range from training and education to recruitment and contracting, retention, unlawful discrimination, monitoring and influencing change.
To read the report, go to:Â
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/ehrc_race_and_construction.pdf