Making Scotland's future - a recovery plan for manufacturing: equality impact assessment

Mitigating actions for each protected characteristic

Age

Summary of Relevant Impact

Older People:

36.5% of the manufacturing workforce are aged 50+. This compares with 33% of the Scottish workforce as a whole.

67.4% of the manufacturing workforce were aged 35+ compared to 64.9% of Scotland's overall workforce.^[2]

Many older workers desire to reduce their working hours prior to retirement.^[3] As over 91% of the manufacturing workforce are in full time employment, this would indicate that there is potentially a lack of part time or flexible working in the sector.

1 in 8 older workers have reviewed their pre COVID retirement plans, and are now either planning to retire earlier or remain in work longer. This could:

1. result in a progressively older future workforce:

• increasing the risk of workplace fatalities - although not manufacturing specific, workers aged 65+ are four times more likely to have a fatality at work than younger people;
• reducing the capacity for companies to be able to recruit younger staff;
• requiring to learn new skills later in their career

2. hasten the skills gap if older workers leave the workforce earlier than anticipated, resulting in a lack of skilled staff to train the next generation

The above figures indicate that the manufacturing workforce is comparatively older than that of people in employment generally and so any intervention aimed at the manufacturing sector is likely to affect older people proportionately more than younger people.

Proposed Mitigating Actions

Making Scotland's Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing includes proposed actions aimed at encouraging employers to retain, adopt and retrain apprentices and to promote progressive Fair Work and Fair Work First practices.

The National Manufacturing Institute of Scotland (NMIS) Manufacturing Skills Academy (MSA) is delivering a suite of programmes linked to the Skills and Workforce priority actions in the Manufacturing Recovery Plan.

The Scottish Government's Workplace Equality Fund makes funding available to support employers to improve their diversity and inclusion strategies, including flexible working.

Summary of Relevant Impact

Younger people:

Apprenticeships for younger people may be impacted. 11.4% of the manufacturing workforce are aged 16-24. Data from the Resolution Foundation states that more than one in three 18 to 24-year-olds are earning less than before the outbreak.^[4]

An aging skilled workforce poses a future risk to the ability to safely train young people and apprentices and the ability for young people to learn a skilled trade.

Proposed Mitigating Actions

The plan proposes actions to mitigate the impact of graduate unemployment, creating meaningful work experience, training and employment across the manufacturing sector.

Implementation of the plan will ensure the ongoing recruitment, skills development and training of the future workforce. This will reduce the possible risk of a reduced future skilled workforce and prevent any resulting skills vacuum where there would be a lack of skilled workers available to safely train young people and ensure young people's careers can be progressed with skills being passed down.

Scottish Government Apprenticeship Employer Grant provides incentives for employers to create apprenticeship opportunities for all people: £5,000 for employers taking on or upskilling a 16-24 year old apprentice, or up to 29 years old where they are disabled, care leavers or minority ethnic and £3,500 for employers taking on or upskilling an apprentice aged 25+.

Pathway Apprenticeships and Adopt an Apprentice Scheme provides additional support for school leavers and young people made redundant as a result of the pandemic, supporting the prospects of Scotland's young people

Disability

Summary of Relevant Impact

25.6% of workers in the manufacturing sector have a medical condition or illness lasting more than 12 months with 11.6% having such a condition which was classed as respiratory, cardiovascular, or diabetes related or related to a progressive long term illness.

10.4%^[5] of workers in the sector are classed as disabled under the Equality Act 2010, compared to 13.6% of those in employment in Scotland overall.

Research shows there is a low employment rate (43.4%) for disabled people educated to below degree level. Only 71.7% of disabled people with a degree, are in employment, compared to 78.7% of non-disabled people without a degree and 86.3% of non-disabled people with a degree.

10% of IT specialists in the manufacturing sector are disabled and paid £2 an hour less than non-disabled tech workers.^[6] Prior to COVID, disabled people faced a pay gap of 15%, or £1.65 per hour or £3,000 per annum in all sectors.^[7] This would indicate that there is potentially a pay gap between disabled and non-disabled workers carrying out the same role in the manufacturing sector.

Proposed Mitigating Actions

Making Scotland's Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing includes a commitment to Fair Work and Fair Work First principles and reflects equality issues and statutory requirements under equality law. It includes a series of actions aimed at improving recruitment and workforce development in the manufacturing sector. These actions are informed by Fair Work and Fair Work First practices and seek to embed these practices throughout the sector.

Scottish Government Apprenticeship Employer Grant provides incentives for employers to create apprenticeship opportunities for all people: £5,000 for employers taking on or upskilling an apprentice up to 29 years old where they are disabled.

As part of the Fair Work action plan, the Scottish Government has published the Fairer Scotland for disabled people - employment action plan

Summary of Relevant Impact

36.4% of all disabled workers in Scotland work part time.^[8] The number of disabled people working in the manufacturing sector has not been identified. As over 91% of the manufacturing workforce are in full time employment, this would indicate that there is potentially a lack of part time or flexible working in the sector that this group are seeking.

Proposed Mitigating Actions

The Scottish Government's Workplace Equality Fund makes funding available to support employers to improve their diversity and inclusion

Summary of Relevant Impact

Making Scotland's Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing is currently not available in any format other than written English. This poses a risk that people with impaired sight or blindness are unable to access the content of the document.

Proposed Mitigating Actions

We recognise that there is a lack of accessibility to Making Scotland's Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing and are looking at solutions. In the meantime, should an alternative format be requested, such a braille, BSL, or a community language, this can be arranged through Scottish Government

Sex

Summary of Relevant Impact

There has never been a better opportunity to reduce, or eliminate, the "traditional" occupational segregation that exists in the Scottish Manufacturing sector.

76.6% of the manufacturing workforce are men with only 23.4% women. This is significantly lower than for Scotland as a whole - where 48.8% of the workforce are women.^[9]

Up to the end of Q3 2020/21, 19 apprentices were recruited in general manufacturing, all of which were male. For the same period 687 male apprentices were recruited in Engineering and Energy, whilst only 46 female apprentices were recruited.^[10] This demonstrates the imperative of encouraging more young women into apprenticeships in the manufacturing/engineering sector.

Women are more likely to be in non-manufacturing specific associate professional roles such as accounting, finance and IT. Men are more likely to be working in manufacturing engineering professional occupations. This is reflective of the wider labour market, where skilled trades are male dominated, while women are concentrated in administrative, sales and customer service roles

Women are over represented in routine-level work, with over 1/3 of women working in production or elementary roles, with 12.6% of women considered low skilled. Just 17.2% of women are considered highly skilled compared to 27.6% of women in all employment in Scotland.

Women are employed across the manufacturing sub sectors but are concentrated in food and drink, textiles, machine and equipment and chemical production manufacturing.

Women are scarcely represented in maintenance works, engineering technicians, chemical activities, goods handling and storage.

70% of young women express an interest in working in STEM but just 12% of those working in UK engineering are women. Women do not feel enough is being done to create inclusive workplaces or educational institutions, many report multiple discriminations and have experienced sexism when trying to progress a career in STEM.

The Scottish manufacturing sector gender pay gap is 14.1%, compared with 3% in Scotland overall^[11] The pay gap increases with age (23.7% between the ages of 50-59), with women earning an average of 23.4% less than men in full time process plan and machine operative jobs and 36.3% less in skilled trades than men.

Men are increasingly taking extended periods of paternity leave, which risks impacting on their ability to return to their previous role, or have a longer term impact on career opportunities and increase the pay gap between men in the same role.

This would indicate that any intervention in the manufacturing sector will disproportionately affect men. It also may be indicative that there is a lack of opportunity for women in the sector and this could be addressed in the implementation of the proposed actions.

Proposed Mitigating Actions

Making Scotland's Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing includes a commitment to Fair Work and Fair Work First principles and reflects equality issues and statutory requirements under equality law. It includes a series of actions aimed at improving recruitment and workforce development in the manufacturing sector. These actions are informed by Fair Work practices and seek to embed these practices throughout the sector.

This provides an opportunity to address longstanding issues in the gender balance of employment in the sector and the barriers faced by women when pursuing a career in STEM.

Summary of Relevant Impact

Women are much more likely to work part time than men. Part time working tends to be higher in non-manufacturing specific occupations. The percentage of women working part time in manufacturing is less than the national average for all women in part time employment.

While women in the UK make up the majority of carers (58%) research shows that men are almost just as likely to having caring responsibilities (42%)^[12] and both men and women carers would likely benefit from flexible working.

27.6% of the workforce are parents of children aged 16 or younger. Only 6.9% of women who work in the manufacturing sector have children aged 16 or under.

As over 91% of the manufacturing workforce are in full time employment, this would indicate that there is potentially a lack of part time or flexible working in the sector that women and men require.

Proposed Mitigating Actions

The Scottish Government's Workplace Equality Fund makes funding available to support employers to improve their diversity and inclusion strategies, including flexible working.

Ensuring full and part-time work opportunities that offer flexibility for women aligns to the Scottish Government Gender Pay Gap Action Plan. The aim of the plan is to deliver a cross-government approach tackling the causes of inequality women face in the labour market, taking an intersectional approach to recognising that women can experience multiple barriers in the workplace, i.e. ethnicity, age, socio-economic group. The plan includes ensuring new skills investment focuses on areas of job growth aligning with Scottish Government National Mission for jobs, regardless of gender.

Pregnancy and Maternity

Summary or Relevant Impact

6.9% of employees in the manufacturing sector are women with dependent children (aged 0-16) compared with 15.4% of the Scottish workforce as a whole.^[13]

The UK national % pay gap between men and women increases with age. This is exacerbated by the "motherhood penalty*^[14] "1 in 6^[15] women have experienced discrimination related to caring responsibilities or maternity

Proposed Mitigating Actions

Making Scotland's Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing includes a commitment to Fair Work and Fair Work First principles and reflects equality issues and statutory requirements under equality law. It includes a series of actions aimed at improving recruitment and workforce development in the manufacturing sector. These actions are informed by Fair Work practices and seek to embed these practices throughout the sector.

This provides an opportunity to address any barriers faced as a result of pregnancy or maternity leave.

Summary or Relevant Impact

As over 91% of the manufacturing workforce are in full time employment, this would indicate that there is potentially a lack of part time or flexible working in the sector that women who return from maternity leave require to balance childcare and work responsibilities.

Proposed Mitigating Actions

The Scottish Government's Workplace Equality Fund makes funding available to support employers to improve their diversity and inclusion strategies, including flexible working.

Ensuring full and part-time work opportunities that offer flexibility for women aligns to the Scottish Government Gender Pay Gap Action Plan.

Race

Summary of Relevant Impact

98.51% of employees in manufacturing identify as White compared with 96.73% of employees in the Scottish workforce overall.

8.19% of people with a White background who are employed in Scotland are employed in the manufacturing sector. This compares with only 3.29% of people with an Asian background, 5.59% of those with a Black Caribbean background, 3.8% of those with a Black African background, 4.5% of those with a mixed background and 5.41% of those with a different ethnic background.^[16]

There are a number of obstacles^[17] that ethnic minority people have reported facing in the general labour market, including direct and indirect discrimination. Ethnic minority graduates are between 5-15% less likely to become employed compared to graduates from other backgrounds .

This indicates that employment in manufacturing is disproportionately made up of people from a White background. This could indicate a lack of opportunity for people from a non-White background in the manufacturing sector, or that manufacturing is not seen as a personal career choice for people in this group, which could potentially be addressed in the implementation of the Recovery Plan

Proposed Mitigating Actions

Making Scotland's Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing includes a commitment to Fair Work principles and reflects equality issues and statutory requirements under equality law. It includes a series of actions aimed at improving recruitment and workforce development in the manufacturing sector. These actions are informed by Fair Work and Fair Work First practices and seek to embed these practices throughout the sector.

This provides an opportunity to address any apparent barriers which may be preventing people from certain ethnic backgrounds from seeking employment in the manufacturing sector.

Scottish Government Apprenticeship Employer Grant^[18] provides incentives for employers to create apprenticeship opportunities for all people: £5,000 for employers taking on or upskilling an apprentice up to 29 years old where they are minority ethnic and £3,500 for employers taking on or upskilling an apprentice aged 25+.

The Scottish Government's Workplace Equality Fund makes funding available to support employers to improve their diversity and inclusion strategies.

Summary of Relevant Impact

The Manufacturing Recovery Plan is currently not available in any format other than written English. This poses a risk that people whose first language is not English are unable to read the content of the plan.

Proposed Mitigating Actions

We recognise that there is a lack of accessibility to Making Scotland's Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing and are looking at solutions. In the meantime, should an alternative community language format be requested, this can be arranged through Scottish Government.

Religion and Belief

Summary of Relevant Impact

Census data shows that the percentage of people working in manufacturing who identify as Christian is slightly higher than in the Scottish workforce overall with 53.56% of manufacturing workers identifying as Christian versus 52.05% in the overall workforce. Among workers identifying as Christian the percentage identifying as Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic is slightly higher than for Scottish workers as a whole (32.23% versus 30.56% and 17.21% versus 16.15% respectively) while numbers for other Christian denominations are slightly lower (4.12% versus 5.34%).

The percentage of workers in manufacturing belonging to non-Christian faiths is lower across the board with 0.16% of the workforce identifying as Buddhist versus 0.25% overall, 0.16% identifying as Hindu versus 0.34% overall, 0.07% identifying as Jewish versus 0.11% overall, 0.41% identifying as Muslim versus 1.04% overall and 0.07% identifying as Sikh versus 0.17% overall.^[19]

0.2% of manufacturing workers belong to other, not listed, faiths which compares to 0.33% overall. 38.85% of manufacturing workers report that they belong to no faith group compared to 39.44% in Scotland's overall workforce and 6.51% did not state any response in the census compared with 6.28% in the overall workforce.^[4]

Of particular note is that the data in the census indicates that the rate of employment of those belonging to the Hindu, Muslim and Sikh faiths is less than half of that in the Scottish workforce overall. This agrees generally with the data on ethnicity which shows that people from an Asian background are less likely to be employed in the manufacturing sector.

9.09% of women have experienced religious discrimination at work, college or university when trying to progress a career in STEM^[20]

Proposed Mitigating Actions

Making Scotland's Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing includes a commitment to Fair Work principles and reflects equality issues and statutory requirements under equality law. It includes a series of actions aimed at improving recruitment and workforce development in the manufacturing sector. These actions are informed by Fair Work practices and seek to embed these practices throughout the sector.

This provides an opportunity to address any apparent barriers which may be preventing people from certain faith groups from seeking employment in the manufacturing sector.

The Scottish Government's Workplace Equality Fund makes funding available to support employers to improve their diversity and inclusion strategies, including flexible working.

Gender Reassignment

Summary of Relevant Impact

In 2018 1 in 5 (18%) of people looking for work said they were discriminated against because of their sexual orientation/gender identify whilst trying to get a job

0.98% have experienced transphobia, and 5.39% have experienced gender identity discrimination at work, college or university when trying to progress a career in STEM^[21]

Proposed Mitigating Actions

Making Scotland's Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing includes a commitment to Fair Work principles and reflects equality issues and statutory requirements under equality law. It includes a series of actions aimed at improving recruitment and workforce development in the manufacturing sector. These actions are informed by Fair Work practices and seek to embed these practices throughout the sector.

This provides an opportunity to address any issues which may become apparent affecting people in this group.

Sexual Orientation

Summary of Relevant Impact

In 2018 1 in 5 (18%) of people looking for work said they were discriminated against because of their sexual orientation/gender identify whilst trying to get a job

Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual women feel less likely to report confidence when speaking about inequalities in the workplace and 4.41% have experienced homophobia at work, college or university when trying to progress a career in STEM^[22]

Proposed Mitigating Actions

Making Scotland's Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing includes a commitment to Fair Work principles and reflects equality issues and statutory requirements under equality law. It includes a series of actions aimed at improving recruitment and workforce development in the manufacturing sector. These actions are informed by Fair Work practices and seek to embed these practices throughout the sector.

This provides an opportunity to address any issues which may become apparent affecting people in this group.

Marriage & Civil Partnership^[23]

Summary of Relevant Impact

There is a theoretical possibility that couples who are married or are in a civil partnership may work for the same employer in the manufacturing industry.

Proposed Mitigating Actions

There is no evidence to suggest that there are any differential barriers to this group.

Making Scotland's Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing includes a commitment to Fair Work principles and reflects equality issues and statutory requirements under equality law. It includes a series of actions aimed at improving recruitment and workforce development in the manufacturing sector. These actions are informed by Fair Work practices and seek to embed these practices throughout the sector.

This provides an opportunity to address any issues which may become apparent affecting people in this group.

Summary of Relevant Impact

Increased flexible working practices in the sector could assist in providing this group with the flexible working required where both parties have equal caring responsibilities, allowing greater work/life balance.

Proposed Mitigating Actions

The Scottish Government's Workplace Equality Fund makes funding available to support employers to improve their diversity and inclusion strategies, including flexible working.