Cuts threaten equalities

Unite has warned against further budget cuts and redundancies at the crisis hit Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), in a letter to MP Maria Miller.

The EHRC, set up as in independent body in 2006 to enforce and promote equality and non-discrimination laws, has come under sustained Tory attacks in recent years and is expected to lose another 30 percent from its current budget in the coming months.

The government is planning to implement a new operating model for the commission, which includes making voluntary and, if necessary, compulsory redundancies. Unite say the plans will mean the loss of most of the commission’s black, minority ethnic and disabled staff members, who are concentrated in lower pay grades.

In a letter to Miller, who is chair of the Women’s and Equalities Select Committee, Unite national officer Siobhan Endean said the cuts will turn the EHRC into a “remote, inaccessible think tank.”

“It is difficult for us to see how the commission can implement a new operating model and fulfil its functions effectively on £16.8m a year when the government concluded in 2012 that it needed £30m a year,” Endean wrote.

“In practice these changes proposed amount to be the effective closure of the commission as an independent non-departmental public body, unable to challenge government and other public and private sector bodies.”

Endean described an EHRC in “turmoil”, saying the Conservative’s plans to restructure the committee were “highly questionable.”

The government have yet to confirm the EHRC’s budget for the current financial year, while both The Joint Committee on Human Rights and the Women and Equalities Committee have refused to back the government’s choice of lawyer David Isaacs as the new EHRC chair, because of his links to the government.

Adding to the chaos is a public petition calling on the EHRC disabilities commissioner and Tory peer Chris Holmes to resign, after he voted in favour of benefit cuts for disabled people despite the EHRC being against them.

In the letter Endean called on the government to rethink its plans.

“The mistakes of the past are also being revisited, with money being wasted and expertise lost through redundancy schemes and the implementation of a new organisational model without any consultation with stakeholders on its design or functionality.

These proposals will mean the commission will be left so stripped down that it will be an ineffective body,” Endean said.

“It will lose its connection to what is happening at the grassroots becoming a remote, inaccessible think tank. The real future for the commission is to be outward looking, integrated and well-resourced, in touch with the grassroots concerns and needs of ordinary people – an evidence based regulator providing much needed enforcement powers.”

An EHRC employee, who wished to remain anonymous, agreed with Endean’s sentiments and said the government’s proposals were causing distress amongst the commission’s workforce.

“It’s bad,” she said. “People here are genuinely passionate about what they do and they know that the cuts will have a detrimental impact on equalities.”