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 article omits to say that at present ethnic minorities are heavily underrepresented in the civil service and recruitment targets aim to counter that. If this was about women being recruited would people react in the same way?
This had to do with recruitment marketing etc. I don’t see any issues with that.
As long as people are still appointed solely on merit not ethnicity go for it.
You can do all the targeted recruitment marketing you like, you still won’t amplify the ethnic minority applications threefold.
Also, Welsh Language skills are listed as desirable for most Welsh Gov roles, and essential for some others. Given that Welsh-speaking among ethnic minority groups is much lower than among the white population, there is no way that the Welsh Government can achieve this target without contravening the Equality Act.
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.
You clearly have not read the article.
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…
Perhaps you didn’t read the article? The Welsh Government spokesperson said “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”.
It isn’t clear to me how the WG’s target can be reached without positive discrimination, if the deciding factor is merit. Or are they referring simply to a policy of encouraging people from ethnic minorities to apply?
Are you really that naive?
Mark. If the Welsh Government are as you imply with certainty positively discriminating, why don’t you take your evidence of this lawbreaking to the police?
Firstly, because this hasn’t been implemented yet. Secondly, because the Equality Act 2010 is civil law, not criminal law, and hence outside the remit of the police.
You can rest assured that if the Welsh Government implements this ridiculous idea, it won’t take very long for somebody to drag them through the civil courts with a claim of discrimination.
And you believe this.
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?
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.
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 absurd.