Concerns over Welsh Government plan that 20% of its new employees will be from ethnic minorities
Martin Shipton
The Welsh Government has been challenged over a target to recruit 20% of its externally recruited staff from ethnic minority communities – more than three times the 6% ethnic minority proportion of the population of Wales.
Action 2 in the government’s recently published Anti Racist Wales Action Plan 2024 Update states:
* Recruitment target: 20% of all successful candidates recruited externally to be from an ethnic minority background in order to reflect the 6% of the population in Wales that are ethnic minority. As a result, at least 6% of all staff at all levels of the Welsh Government will be from an ethnic minority.
* Ethnic minority staff are successful in promotion at a level that matches their organisational population share.
Questions
We asked the Welsh Government a series of questions aimed at establishing how the policy will work in practice:
* What instructions are given to those who recruit staff with a view to achieving the 20% target?
* How is the recruitment of staff in different departments coordinated to ensure the 20% target is attained?
* Clearly preferential treatment will have to be given to candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds when job appointments are made. Does this mean there will be occasions when candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds will be appointed even when they are less qualified than candidates who do not have such a background?
* People from ethnic minority backgrounds are not evenly spread throughout Wales. Does this mean that the percentage of ethnic minority candidates appointed in Cardiff, for example, will be higher than 20% in order to meet the overall 20% target? Alternatively, will those offered jobs be expected to move to areas where the proportion of the population from ethnic minority backgrounds is much lower?
* How does the Welsh Government defend the 20% policy against the allegation that it discriminates unfairly against candidates who do not come from ethnic minority backgrounds?
* As a result of the policy on promotion, will there be occasions when candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds will be promoted when they would not have been if they had not been from such a background?
*What is the estimate of the number of posts that need to be filled with ethnic minority candidates before the overall target of at least 6% of staff coming from ethnic minority backgrounds is achieved, and how long is the achievement of this target expected to take?
* Once the overall target of at least 6% of staff coming from ethnic minority targets is achieved, will the instructions to those recruiting staff change or will the current 20% target be maintained?
‘Counterintuitive’
Dr Altaf Hussain MS, the Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Equalities and Social Justice, said: “While we would all like to see greater diversity in the civil service, diversity of thought in particular, setting these arbitrary targets is counterintuitive and in and of itself, a discriminatory practice.
“This Welsh Labour Government recruitment target must be clarified, not least because public sector discrimination, as described, is potentially unlawful.”
A Welsh Government spokesperson didn’t respond to some of our questions specifically, but defended the recruitment policy, saying: “We’re fully committed to building an organisation that represents the diverse communities it serves. Greater diversity within our workforce will enable us to develop richer skillsets, bring in wider perspectives and ensure decisions are rooted in experience and insight.
“When permanent appointments are made, they are done so on the basis of merit, following a fair and open competition aligned to the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles. The best qualified candidate will always be offered the job. Appointing an individual on the basis of their ethnicity (or another characteristic) would be ‘positive discrimination’ and, as such, unlawful.”
Underrepresentation
Further points were made in a series of notes sent to Nation.Cymru by the Welsh Government:
* Our focus is on attracting and developing a wide field of diverse candidates when job roles arise. To address historic underrepresentation across the organisation, we have set ambitious recruitment targets to harness our collective efforts and make us accountable in driving change.
* The Welsh Government’s HR department is supporting recruiting line managers with a range of lawful positive action measures to encourage a greater number of applications from underrepresented groups, including targeted recruitment outreach, development programmes and mentoring support, as set out in the Equality Act 2010 guidance.
A further note referred to Recruitment Principles set out by the Civil Service Commission, one of which distinguishes between “Positive Discrimination” and “Positive Action”:
* Positive Discrimination: Hiring or promoting someone solely because of a protected characteristic (eg race, gender) regardless of merit. This is illegal under UK law.
* Positive Action: Measures taken to encourage or support under-represented groups to apply for roles or develop their skills, as long as the selection itself is still based on merit. This is legal under certain circumstances (eg outreach programs, training initiatives).
A Welsh Labour councillor who did not want to be identified told us: “Of course it is right to have a diverse workforce that represents the make-up of the population of Wales, but having an external recruitment target of 20% from ethnic minorities seems disproportionate and is likely to breed resentment.”
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Does ethnicity include Poes, Romanians, Greeks, Irish? English?? A worthy aim but totally discriminatory.
The English are not an ethnic minority in Britain….and almost a majority in Wales
When I worked in Cardiff in the 1980s, City & S Glam Councils, they were alive to equal opps and best practice. On paper. Meanwhile Cardiff Bay was being massively redeveloped and the ACTUAL lives, opinions and prospects of those living there in Butetown were being ignored & marginalised. Merely seen as obstacles to the “vision”. The scandal around the lack of decent jobs for locals in the Bay redevelopment, the open bias and discrimination, even produced TV exposures. I can see the same trend here, we have best practice, fine intentions, so now we can blithely ignore the wider… Read more »
Gobeithio y rhoddir anogaeth a chefnogaeth iddyn nhw ddysgu Cymraeg – rydym eisoes yn lleiafrif o fewn lleiafrif, a hwnnw’n lleiafrif sy’n lleihau yn gyson – yn bennaf oherwydd difrawder Llywodraeth Vichy Cymru sy’n llawn Cwislingiaid a Thaeogion ac sy’n hyrwyddo gwladychu tiroedd Cymru a darnio’r fro Gymraeg er mwyn creu gwlad lle mae miliwn o siaradwyr yn medru dweud ‘bory da dw i’n hoffi coffi’ a byw gweddill eu bywydau yn Saesneg.
A meritocracy please.
Welcome to Anti-Racist Wales. Look up its grifting, pseudo-academic founder, Ibram X Kendi (Real name Henry Rogers).
So, the welsh government want to
promote a scheme that could potentially be illegal,? Comedy gold.
Appalling idea. Please can we employ the best candidates for jobs? I have no problems with all new employees being from ethnic minorities and I have no problem with all new employees being from the ethnic majority. I just want the BEST employeees, not 2nd rate employees filling tick boxes on ethnic quotas.
And how many people will be employed to supervise the 2nd ratequota idea? Moretax payer money wasted…
Quite easily achieved if recruiters apply themselves to the task. Too many white natives who seek to enter the public sector are pretty thick anyway and it won’t be hard to find an array of young prospects from all sorts of ethnic backgrounds that are better motivated and generally brighter. If we could just shake off their urge to be good Anglo Brits and pick up a bit more of the good old Welsh identity and we’d have a far better mix than the present lot.
You mean if the recruiters apply themselves to the task of screening out applications from white people before they reach the WG’s desk? That way the WG can claim they haven’t discriminated, but only because they have subcontracted discrimination to the recruitment company. Is that really what you are proposing? And do you really believe the white Welsh are inferior to those from an ethnic minority?
Meritocracy have their own flaws….it fails to consider the potential to make people great through training and experience.
In some areas of the world, meritocracy has kept born and bred local people out of the job market which isn’t good socially
That’s what the armed forces wanted to do a few years ago
Surely this quota idea is an example of the worst sort of white patronage? ‘The poor ethnics can’t get a job on their own merit so let’s employ a few to make up the numbers?’
You can bet reform will be banging the drum about this in two years. Welsh Labour basically just handed them a pile of resentful voters.
…well somebody needs to bang the drum, and it ain’t going to Labour, the Lib Dems, Plaid, the greens, or the Tories
Is it any wonder that Reform UK are polling so we’ll with all this woke nonsense going on. Shouldn’t jobs be given on merit not skin colour. And why say non ethnic people just say white people we won’t be offended.
This is not woke.
Woke by its actual definition was questioning the effects of imperialism and colonialism on native homelands.
This is just discriminatory
This is absurd.
I’m curious as to why that Labour councillor did not want to be identified when what he or she said was spot on. But then again this is the same party that tried to implement gender quotas in the Senedd. Are Labour trying to push the “support positive action or your racist” narrative?
People should be chosen entirely by merit. It was Martin Luther King who said judge someone by the content of their character and not the colour of their skin.
So Rob I presume you would like the House of Lords and monarchy abolished? But anyway if you had read the article that is exactly what is happening – “When permanent appointments are made, they are done so on the basis of merit”.
The Labour Party implemented gender quotas – but only in safe seats – and subsequently went on to claim that a man can become a woman anyway. These people are unhinged!
The Labour Party did not implement any genda quotas in the last General Election?
I didn’t claim that they did – and you don’t need a question mark after a statement.
You’ve got that right! Why would anyone with half a brain cell even think of voting Labour? It can’t even say what a Woman is, let alone be trusted with the Public Purse. Absolute clown show the lot of them 🤡
The Welsh are an ethnic minority. Especially Welsh speakers. So hopefully the Welsh be included in this quote
What are you on about, the Welsh are the majority in Wales, but not for much longer.
The Welsh are a national majority in Wales and a national minority in the UK. They are not an ethnic majority or minority anywhere in the UK. Check the UN definitions of these terms.
This is racist you are discriminating someone on a job on the basis of their skin. They wonder why left wing politics are dying truth is labour is dying in wales at long last and making moves like this will only make it sooner. They all like to prance around looking for a gold star or white saviour status. Ethnic minority blocks make majorities in many english cities do you think they will be the same for us. No this crap doesn’t even cross their minds except for liberal weirdos. People are no longer being quiet about this sort of… Read more »
Left wing politics in the Labour Party is a long gone thing of the past.It started with Blair, Brown and Mandelson and is continuing with Starmer and and all his Yes Men and Women in Westminster and the Senedd. You could argue that demographic changes that are happening in The English Cities are also taking place in Rural Cymru with Local Indigenous people becoming the minority as a result of inward migration of English Incomer. Left wing politics may be a thing of the past except that people who masquerade as socialists are now the mouthpiece of the Liberal Metropolitan… Read more »
The Welsh Language Board must be apoletic. Can we finally lay to rest that it is’nt the ‘sais’ that are the root cause of the decline in the beautiful native language; the real threat comes from within; the WWLLA ( Woke Welsh Looney Left Agenda )..You get what you vote for people!
The Welsh nation is being steadily destroyed from within, both economically and socially.
Once any orgs isation moves away from “ best for the task” it’s doomed and it’s discrimination.
Those appointed under these principles will always gave a stigma attached to them
It’s an utterly wrong policy but the Senedd are clueless.
This is racist do this mean
It will stop inflated salaries and pensions because the applicant is possibly not the best but is ethnic
This is disgusting and make people feel discriminated
If I was black I would be very angry.
We the Welsh are ethnic minority as there are only about 3.5 million in the whole world.
What buffoonery of the welsh government is this now again.
We are laying off people hand over fist in wales. All our large industries have gone and they come up with this hairbrained nonsense
Oh what have the Welsh done to Wales
Well if this is what happens after devolution you can see why we’re ruled by Westminster for so long.
This is racist and discriminatory, people should be employed on there merits not by a category