South Lanarkshire’s only BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) councillor has branded recruitment figures for minority ethnic applicants “absolutely ridiculous”.
Blantyre councillor Mo Razzaq made the comments at a recent meeting of the council’s finance and corporate resources committee.
It was revealed that white job applicants were almost twice as likely to be given a job by the council than people from every other background.
Councillor Razzaq said he had been bringing the issue up “at every single committee” since he was elected in 2015.
Between April and June this year, 29 per cent of non-white applicants were offered job interviews, while just over eight per cent went on to be employed by South Lanarkshire Council.
That’s down from the 38 per cent who were offered an interview for the same period in 2019 but up slightly from the seven per cent who went on to be employed by the local authority.
For white applicants, 39 per cent were offered job interviews between April and June this year and 15 per cent went on to be employed by the council.
For the same period last year, 40 per cent of white applicants were offered job interviews while 11 per cent went on to be employed by the council.
Overall, white applicants were appointed to fill 98.5 per cent of vacant posts.
Councillor Razzaq said: “I am really disappointed to see this. I bring this up at every single committee. This isn’t good enough.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous. We have to have a serious look at this. It has been going on for far too long.
“I have been talking about this since I joined the council. This isn’t happening just as a one-off.
“Why is there such a disparity with the figures? This needs to be investigated properly.”
Kay McVeigh, head of personnel services agreed with the councillor and said: “We need to do more work.”
Hamilton West and Earnock councillor Mark McGeever also agreed with his colleague and pointed out that in 2019, white applicants were only 1.5 times more likely to be given a job than people from any other background.
Councillor Mary Donnelly found the figures “quite frightening” and chair of the committee, Councillor Gladys Miller, felt the council needed “to start engaging with BAME groups”.
Executive director for finance Paul Manning said: “This piece of work has started. The pandemic hasn’t helped but Kay hasn’t stopped.
“We will give an update at the next meeting. If it is not a final report, it will be an update."
