Harriet Harman announced in the Commons today the key themes of the forthcoming equality bill. The Labour party has a strong record on discrimination issues; since 1997 the government has legislated on the full spectrum, from gender to race, disability, sexual orientation and religious belief (or none).
Too often critics have unfairly criticised us for only taking legislative action when ‘forced to by Europe.’ While it’s true that the EU has been an important leader on equality issues, the themes announced today by Harman are squarely domestic in origin.
As progressives we should welcome moves to force the lifting of the veil of silence on pay, which so often masks the still shockingly stubborn gender pay gap. Despite legislation being in place since the seventies, men in full-time employment earn on average 40 per cent more per hour than women who work part-time.
The proposal that companies wishing to contract with the public sector should reveal the difference in pay between men and women will not only embarrass and compel employers into enforcing pay parity, but a positive gender balance and culture of equal pay will become a competitive advantage when dealing with the public sector.
And the proposal that employers be legally enabled to positively discriminate in favour of equally qualified, under-represented groups, such as women or ethnic minorities, will quicken the culture change required to ensure that the workplace is as representative and fair as society at large. In need of most attention are the upper echelons of management where female and ethnic minority representation is scandalously low. As all-women shortlists have demonstrated to Labour, positive discrimination is necessary and desirable in redressing patterns of inequality.
David Cameron has slickly moved to claim the progressive mantle from Labour. But bold, genuinely progressive proposals like those announced today will reveal the true nature of Conservative politics on equality. Predictably tensions have already been exposed between the Tory frontbench and backbench MPs. When it comes to supporting concrete proposals the Conservatives will be found wanting and once again the Labour party will demonstrate our representation of all Britons and not just the privileged few.
As Harman stated in the Commons today, ‘equality is a matter of principle’ for the Labour party and wider labour movement, a principle that we have fought to assert since our foundation. The equality bill will be the next step in our journey, a step that all progressives will endorse and a step of which we will in due course by rightly proud.
Kevin McKeever is Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Harborough