Prospect Revives Equality Networks

16th October

Democratic Prospects member

Terms of the new Equality Networks

The NEC have released the Terms of Reference for five national Equality Networks: 

• BAME

• Disabled workers

• LGBT+

• Women

• Young workers

The networks will be open to Prospect and Bectu members who share the relevant protected characteristic (young workers being members aged 35 or below). Although, the Terms of Reference do not detail what it means to be a member of an Equality Network - beyond some implication that you will be added to the relevant mailing list, and invited to meetings arranged by the Network’s Steering Group.

These Steering Groups are the primary focus of the Terms of Reference. Each Network will have a Steering Group composed of up to eight members, that will meet quarterly.

Steering Groups will be appointed by the NEC, rather than elected by members of the Network, and will have no policy-making function, nor any ability to directly commission work.

They will be responsible for:

• Advising on the production of relevant best practice advice and guidance

• Promoting advocacy of such advice and guidance to members beyond the Network's members

• Connecting members from across the union who share their protected characteristic, through a combination of virtual and in person events

• Liaising with branch committees to identify issues of interest in the workplace, and to raise the visibility of and promote these issues

• Supporting the recruitment and organisation of members who share their protected characteristic

Will these Networks be fit for purpose?

That Prospect's Equality Networks are being revived is a good thing. Groups of workers that are routinely marginalised within the labour movement should be enabled to collectively organise around the issues that affect them.

The Prospect Young Workers Network, which became active before the NEC's new Terms of Reference, has organised the Young Workers Forum, and hosted an event at this year's National Conference. These events have been invaluable opportunities to connect young workers across the union, and it will be a positive development to see new opportunities to connect workers across the five Equality Networks.

However, the proposed Terms of Reference fall short on several crucial fronts.

The Network Steering Groups will not be chosen by members of the Networks themselves, but will instead be selected by the NEC. Members of the Networks will be given no decision-making capacity, unless a Network's Steering Group decides to implement some mechanism for this, and what this mechanism might look like is entirely left to the Steering Group's discretion.

The result of this is that the proposal fails to establish Equality Networks that genuinely allow the members of those Networks to organise around the issues that most affect them. Instead establishing something more akin to an NEC subcommittee with an attached mailing list, and the capacity to host networking events (although it is not yet clear what sort of budget will be provided to Networks to organise these events).

There may be some scope for Steering Groups to shape their Equality Networks into something that enables its members to self-organise around their issues, but given that the Steering Groups will not be elected, members will not get the opportunity to decide who will make those decisions. 

There is enough uncertainty in the Terms of Reference that it is not clear to what extent the Network would be able to self-organise.

If for example, the Women's Network wanted to organise a Women's Conference (to produce purely advisory motions, as Networks are not afforded policy-making functions), it is not clear if it would be enabled and funded to do so, or if the NEC would block the Network from holding such an event. Similarly, it is not clear if the Networks not being afforded the "ability to directly commission work" would be used to block or discourage initiatives where Networks attempt to actively organise around relevant issues, such as the recent initiative by the Young Workers Network to produce their Young Workers' Manifesto.

A Model for Equality Networks

To ensure that our Equality Networks are fit for the purpose of organising and representing marginalised workers, they should:

• Be open to any member on the basis of self-identification, with all members made aware of the Equality Networks that they are entitled to join

• Be run by a committee elected by members of the Network

• Hold regular meetings that allow members of the Network to propose, debate, and vote on proposals (including the right to hold their own Conference)

• Have the agenda of their meetings and Conferences set by the Network itself

• Be given the means to contact members of the Network, and Prospect Branch and Sector Secretaries, to publicise their work 

• Be adequately funded to organise their members

• Be entitled to submit motions to, and to send delegates to speak on motions at National Conference

• Be entitled to submit (or at least recommend to the NEC) the motions that the union is entitled to send to the relevant TUC equality conference

The NEC should update its proposed Terms of Reference to reflect this model. The incoming Equality Network Steering Groups should shape their Networks in line with this model, and advocate for the NEC to grant them the funds and powers not offered by the current Terms of Reference. And motions to establish Equality Networks in line with this model should be drafted and submitted to upcoming Sector and National Conferences.