The barriers to advancing race equality in Scottish local authority employment

• Date: 12 March 2024
• Pages: 1150-1167
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-05-2022-0117
• Published date: 12 March 2024
• Author: Silvio Hofmann

The barriers to advancing race

equality in Scottish local

authority employment

Silvio Hofmann

School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the West of Scotland,

Paisley, UK

Abstract

Purpose –This paper critically evaluates potential barriers to employment opportunities for ethnic minority

(EM) individuals in Scottish Local Authorities –both in terms of access to job and development opportunities. It

provides a fundamental discussion of concepts around race and ethnicity, and the levels of social injustice, with

an explicit focus on institutional racia lisation, discrimination and segregation . The paper explores

organisational approaches towards recruitment, including positive action and workforce development.

Design/methodology/approach –This paper adopts a subjectivist (onto logy) and interpret ivist

(epistemology) stance, based on a small-scale, in-depth investigation. The data have been gathered through

semi-structured interviews with equality diversity and inclusion (EDI) officers in four Scottish Local

Authorities, utilising thematic analysis.

Findings –The finding suggests that participating local authorities have a long way to go to ensure the

elimination of barriers to employment for EM people. This is largely based on concerns around limitations in

the application of positive action and elimination of disadvantages in recruitment and access to career and

development opportunities?

Originality/value –The paper aims to contribute by exploring the availability of employment opportunities

for EMs through the eyes of EDI Officers in four local authorities. Their thorough understanding, over- and

insight into potential equality issues from an employment perspective are invaluable, focussing on more

tangible organisational issues and approaches.

Keywords Race, Ethnicity, Ethnic minorities, Equality, Equality Act 2010, Discrimination, Segregation,

Positive action, Recruitment, Selection, Training, Career development, Scotland

Paper type Research paper

1. Background to this study

1.1 Underlying race equality issues in Scotland

This study explores whether ethnic minorities (EMs) have equal access to employment

opportunities. In establishing its import ance, the paper provides an outline of the

fundamental issues identified within the Scottish context, which are:

(1) The idea of “Scottish Exceptionalism”and its implications;

(2) Socio-economic disadvantage and segregation in the labour market;

(3) Lack of reflection of the population and high-quality equality data.

Harris (2018) suggests there is an assumption that Scotland fares better in terms of race

equality than England, a concept referred to as “Scottish exceptionalism”. He argues not only

is there limited research into race equality (specifically Muslim communities) in Scotland but

EDI

43,7

1150

The author would like to thank the four participating Scottish local authorities for their contribution, as

without their support and insights, this research would not have been possible, as well as several

colleagues for their ongoing support and guidance. The authors would also like to thank the two

anonymous reviewers and the associate editor of this journal for helpful comments on earlier drafts of

this article.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 13 May 2022

Revised 15 December 2022

1 May 2023

31 January 2024

Accepted 8 February 2024

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 43 No. 7, 2024

pp. 1150-1167

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-05-2022-0117

the research which does exist, does not focus widely enough on fundamental theoretical

concerns. This may be explained by the assumption that race equality is not an issue in

Scotland, whether in the political or societal sphere (Meer et al., 2020). This prevents further

development of a meaningful theoretical and practical discourse around the experiences of

EMs, especially relating to the “everyday issues”of gaining access to employment

opportunities. Other research also identifies the absence of detailed theorisation around

individual and institutional elements of racialisation (Bowser, 2017). On this basis, Meer et al.

(2020) and Harris (2018) argue that further research is required, which this study aims to

contribute by investigating the existence of individual and institutional-level racialisation

and organisational approaches in eliminating these. While the lack of such a theoretical

discussion is concerning in itself, it may help explain some of the underlying issues around

accessibility to job opportunities for EM individuals.

The second area is, therefore, concerned with the continued socio-economic disadvantages

and occupational segregation for EMs, despite the longstanding existence of race equality

legislation (Phillips, 2011;Hudson et al., 2017;Joseph, 2017;Keblusek et al., 2017;CRER, 2023).

According to the Scottish Government (2022a), EMs in Scotland are almost twice as likely to

be unemployed when compared to their white counterparts –6.5 versus 3.8%. Furthermore,

opportunities in Scottish public sector employment for EMs remain a challenge, having a

higher representation in the private sector (21.0%, compared to 28.9% for White people)

(Scottish Government, 2022b). This raises concerns about the attractiveness or accessibility

of public sector jobs, especially given the high level of employment the public sector and local

government provide in Scotland. According to the latest data, 22.2% of overall national

employment is provided by the public sector and around 9.7% by local governments (Scottish

Government, 2023). Although the data focuses on access to job opportunities, such a

disadvantage also occurs in the context of development opportunities, where EMs are more

represented at the bottom of hierarchies (Hudson et al., 2017;Joseph, 2017). This study,

therefore, aims to explore the current practices and key issues around occupational

segregation in depth.

Third, although there is a legal obligation for Scottish public sector organisations to

monitor and use equality data (Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations),

those organisations continue to show under-representation of the EM population in

employment and a lack of high-quality equality data (Young, 2020;CRER, 2023). This is due

to a lack of detail and inconsistency in the quality of data, preventing meaningful comparison

and –most importantly –a lack of evidence as to what the data is used for (Young, 2020;

CRER, 2023). Inevitably, this prohibits SLAs from making a more concerted effort towards

eliminating disadvantages in their communities and the labour market (CRER, 2023). With

that in mind, this study aims to explain the underlying, wider-reaching issues, focusing on

three barriers to opportunities:

(1) Barrier 1: General Workplace Inequalities: investigating the existence of individual

and institutional level discrimination for EMs in SLAs;

(2) Barrier 2: Access to Job Opportunities: examining the accessibility of occupational

opportunities for ethnic minorities in SLAs;

(3) Barrier 3: Access to Careers and Development: exploring the existence of barriers to

career and development opportunities for EMs.

The paper builds on an in-depth, small-scale study, adopting an interpretivist, subjectivist

stance and utilising semi-structured interviews. The author engaged with Equality, Diversity

and Inclusion (EDI) Officers (or equivalent) to obtain a deep and meaningful insight into the

four participating SLAs (Tatli and Alasia, 2011).

The barriers to

advancing race

equality

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