Scottish Parliament Motion

Date of Lodging: 13 March 2012

S4M-02340 Mary Fee (Scottish Labour): That the Parliament notes that the Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Organisations (CEMVO) Scotland recently held an event, Is It Possible to Work and Still Be Poor?, which launched the research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on in-work poverty and ethnicity; is concerned that there is a lack of information held by all levels of government on ethnicity in the workplace, such as recruitment, retention and progression; if further concerned at the link between in-work poverty and child poverty, particularly in black and ethnic minority (BME) communities; calls on employers to look at how integration of members of BME communities in workplaces affects recruitment, retention and progressions, and requests that the Scottish Government look to re-assess how the Labour Force Survey in Scotland is carried out in order to include a greater sample that includes representation of BME workers.