A Parliamentary report into racial discrimination by the Women and Equalities Committee highlights some hidden discrimination suffered by Muslim people. They face the highest level of unemployment of all religious and ethnic groups, 12.8% are out of work compared to 5.4% for the general population in the UK.
Several reasons have been put forward for these statistics. They include discrimination, islamophobia, stereotyping and pressure from traditional families. However, several possible solutions do exist to these issues, and we examine some of these below, together with pros and cons.
Name-blind recruitment
MPs have proposed name-blind recruitment as “part of the solution” to the biases. Mr Smith is more likely to be called to interview than Mr Khan. However, this will only work at the primary stage of recruitment, after which blind applications will not resolve the bias that comes in face-to-face interviews.
Quotas
Another proposition that has been suggested is quotas for Muslim applicants for vacancies. However, this could be perceived to do more harm than good, in a situation where, for example, a perfectly qualified candidate is rejected in favour of a Muslim candidate from a quota list.
Educate employers
Employers should make a conscious effort to increase their employees’ understanding racial discrimination and stereotypes. This could be achieved through courses to enhance cultural awareness and understanding.
Empowering employees
The government needs to take action to ensure employees are empowered to challenge racial discrimination. This could include a media campaign to highlight situations where employees fear challenging discrimination, in case they lose their job if they speak out.
Nominated individual
A nominated individual in the interview who is well-trained in recognising any stereotyping or discrimination. This person could be responsible for giving training courses to employers to enhance awareness of discrimination issues. They would be involved in the decision-making process, although this would have a significant bearing on recruitment costs.
Note for those wishing to improve diversity
Employers may be allowed to favour Muslims in one specific situation. Where candidates with a particular protected characteristic (such as Muslim religion, Asian race or females) are disadvantaged (such as in recruitment) a recruiter is allowed to treat a person with that characteristic more favourably than another as long as the person with the relevant characteristic is “as qualified as” those others (s159 EqA 2010).
I.e. you are allowed to discriminate favourably to balance your workforce as long as you don’t disadvantage someone who is better-suited to the job.
This is called ‘positive action’ and has only been legal in recruitment since 2011.
By Raheena Jamila Khan
Image courtesy of Fahrurrazy Halil and licensed under CC