On Monday 10th August, it emerged that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Britons are twice as likely to have lost their jobs during the coronavirus furlough period.
While the hospitality industry has practically ground to a standstill considering the nature of a prolonged lockdown, corporates have highlighted the knock-on effect of one collapsed industry on other manufacturing and retail businesses as well.
Speaking to the newsweekly, Lord Rami Ranger, Founder of Sun Mark, the UK’s leading export FMCG company said, “We are now beginning to feel the impact of coronavirus from our trading countries who are key for the import and export of our products. Besides, the nature of lockdown has resulted in production and manufacturing processes slowing down which means that we have witnessed a record 5-6% increase in prices of our products across the board. But, at the moment we are just trying to survive and weather the Covid-19 storm.
“We are extremely fortunate to be operating in the food industry at a time like this. Demand has gone up for food supplies during the lockdown. We employ a total of 150 permanent employees and we have not had to announce in redundancies. But, bearing in mind the Covid-19 safety norms, we had to make special arrangements at our workspace and some of our employees continue to work from home.”
His comments arrive at a time when a new survey from charity Hope Not Hate noted that a third of the BAME workforce were likely to have had their hours reduced. The charity surveyed 1,001 BAME individuals across the UK and 7% reported losing their job, compared to the national average of just 3%. Meanwhile, 9% of respondents said they had struggled to pay rent during the pandemic, against around 5% of respondents nationally.
The survey is conducted by Rosie Carter, who said, "Now we are heading into the next phase of the pandemic response, the evidence is mounting that BAME communities have been hit hardest by both the pandemic and the consequences of lockdown, so it is vital that the government urgently prioritises a targeted public health strategy that bridges gaps between communities, reaches those most at risk and contributes to building better support networks across our society."
Businesses re-structure in a bid to prevent redundancies
The Mayor of London has already stated that keeping London’s hospitality businesses and venues open should be an “urgent priority” during the pandemic, or the city risks a downturn it may not recover from. Now, city bosses have launched a campaign to get staff back in the office, a move which would boost the local economy by bringing spending back to businesses. But even as the hospitality industries limps into recovery, some businesses were quick to pivot their business structure and prevent any redundancies. Speaking about the UK slipping into recession, Digvijay Singh, Area Director & General Manager of Taj 51 Buckingham Gate & St. James’ Court, A Taj Hotel, London said,
“We employ 294 employees and we have not made any redundancies. But we will have to re-structure based on the business forecast. An A1 team approach has been developed to deploy members of the team into different areas between both our hotels where outside agencies had been used in the past. This approach will protect current jobs. Besides, the training and development of the staff will allow for a more fluid response to business demands.”
The study by Hope Not Hate appears in the light of the prediction that the UK is likely to plunge into the deepest recession for 300 years, and the sectors with the highest rates of furloughed jobs and redundancies have disproportionate numbers of BAME workers. Previously an analysis by The Guardian had reported that the transport and storage sector had announced the most redundancies, with 34,000 reported as of 28 July. BAME workers constitute 12% of the UK workforce, accounting for 18% of jobs in this industry, according to analysis of the Labour Force Survey. Royal Mail had recently announced that 2,000 of its workers would be made redundant while British Airways said 12,000 jobs would be lost.
Single working mothers hardest hit with a shrinking pension pot
BAME workforce make up 15% of the staff in the accommodation and food services and the industry has reported the third-highest number of redundancies, with 16,000 announced as of 28 July. Wholesale and retail also comprise a high proportion of BAME workers and had the second-highest number of redundancies, with almost 24,000 job losses.
The figures from Hope Not Hate, appear as the furlough scheme appears to be closing down. The figures also demonstrate that 13% of BAME people had also reported having their hours cut by employers during June, compared to just 9% in the wider population.
And amidst all these employees single working mothers are the hardest hit. New research commissioned by NOW: Pensions, the pension provider for 1.8 million people, has found that single mothers face huge barriers to saving, resulting in a private pension pot approximately one-third of UK women’s average. Barriers to full-time work mean that single mothers have fewer savings opportunities, made worse by the continuing economic downturn resulting from the Covid-19 crisis. The report, which will be published this Autumn by the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI), reveals that single mothers reach retirement age with a private pension worth £18,300 – just 36% of the average woman’s savings of £51,000, and only 12% of the average man’s of £156,500. This is also almost one third (30%) less than divorced women who have £26,100.
The study had also highlighted that a majority (57%) of respondents felt ministers have failed to do enough to protect BME communities during the pandemic, with almost two-thirds (62%) saying the Government had not handled the outbreak well.
--------
