Agenda item

Carried forward from July and August meetings. Please note the report has been updated since those meetings.

With reference to Article 10 of the minute of its meeting of 7 February 2024, the Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - People and Citizen Services which responded to the instruction to report back providing further detail on the activity which had been undertaken to improve diversity in recruitment, including leadership and management roles.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)           note the actions contained in the report being taken to increase diversity in leadership;

(b)           note the self-assessment and areas for further consideration contained within Appendix A; and

(c)           note that in the first appropriate committee cycle in 2025/26 the equality, diversity and inclusion action plan, first agreed in 2021, would be updated and reported to the Staff Governance Committee for approval, as a result of the ongoing work, self-assessment exercise and new equality outcomes due to be presented for approval in April 2025.  

Councillor Copland moved, seconded by Councillor Al-Samarai:-

That the Council approve the recommendations contained within the report.

Councillor Malik moved as an amendment, seconded by Councillor Tissera:-

That the Council - 

(1)       notes the report;

(2)       notes this report was deferred in both July and August, the only recent report to be deferred twice. Notes the report deals with diversity and notes our disappointment with the Lord Provost for not taking this report in either July or August which may lead the public to conclude that, whilst there is no direct evidence of discrimination on the part of the Council, the actions of the Council in delaying the report twice shows unconscious bias on the part of the Council versus other reports which were taken;

(3)       agrees the report does not adequately address the issue agreed by Council on 13th October 2022 which said “given the low proportion of Ethnic Minority employees in the Council compared to the UK, to agree that everything possible should be done by officers to ensure that employees who are suitably qualified and who identify as Ethnic Minority should be encouraged to apply for these senior posts”, meaning the Chief Officer posts;

(4)       notes that none of the posts went to any person from a Minority Ethnic background; and

(5)       agrees that the final report in 2025 should show how the Council intends its workforce to mirror the cosmopolitan mix of Aberdeen.

On a division, there voted:-

For the motion   (24)  -  Lord Provost; Depute Provost; and Councillors Al-Samarai, Allard, Alphonse, Boulton, Bouse, Hazel Cameron, Clark, Cooke, Copland, Cormie, Davidson, Fairfull, Greig, Henrickson, Hutchison, McLellan, McRae, Mennie, Nicoll, Radley, van Sweeden and Yuill.

For the amendment  (15)  -  Councillors Ali, Blake, Bonsell, Brooks, Crockett, Graham, Grant, Kusznir, Lawrence, Macdonald, Malik, Massey, Tissera, Thomson and Watson. 

Absent from the division  (3)  -  Councillors Cross, Farquhar and MacGregor.

The Council resolved:-

(i)             to adopt the motion;

(ii)           to note that the Chief Officer - People and Citizen Services would check on training that had been offered to elected members, with a view to offering training to all elected members regarding unconscious bias, which was currently part of training offered to recruiting managers; and

(iii)          to note that the Chief Officer - People and Citizen Services would provide information regarding (1) the number of complaints that had been received by ethnic minority employees alleging racial discrimination; and (2) uptake of the various training referred to in paragraph 3.5.7 of the report.