UNISON is marking 2023 as the Year of the Black Worker and will be using this time to celebrate the achievements of our black members across Britain — and to acknowledge the additional barriers we face in the workplace and society in general.

This is the year to engage in honest self-reflection as well as engaging in some “challenging” conversations, both as a trade union movement and as a nation.

As a nation, Scotland often portrays itself as a tolerant country — open to all who seek to make it their home. The phrase “we’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns” is often bandied about implying that we are all the same.

However, it is clear, to quote George Orwell, that “some are more equal than others” and too often accusations of racism are met with denial and deflection. From Scotland’s involvement in and profiteering from the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the 1919 race riots in Glasgow to the ongoing Shaku Bayoh inquiry, Scotland at times has struggled with its colonial past and its modern-day legacy.

Times and attitudes are changing as our history and involvement in the slave trade are being rediscovered. There are growing calls for Scotland to make reparations to Caribbean countries and a growing number of Scottish institutions are investigating their historical links to the slave trade.

However, there are still too many historians who seek to minimise Scotland’s historical role and it is time for us all to challenge this narrative and rediscover our past. While Friday January 31 1919 will always be remembered in Glasgow as the battle of George Square, eight days earlier on January 23, one of the first British race riots took place in Glasgow.  

Black and white sailors clashed over competition for jobs and black sailors were accused of driving down wages as shipowners and trade unions failed to inform them that they were entitled to the same wages as white sailors.

Some shipowners even instigated a “colour ban,” a move that was never challenged by the trade unions. When the police did intervene to stop the riot, only blacks were arrested even though the black sailors had been chased by armed white sailors.

One of the causes of the Glasgow race riot was the differential in pay rates. We now call that “the ethnicity pay gap.” Currently, it isn’t mandatory to report the ethnicity pay gap (unlike the gender pay gap) however, some organisations do collect the data on a voluntary basis. It is apparent that Scotland has a persistent ethnicity pay gap.

On average, black and minority ethnic workers earn less than white workers in Scotland. In 2019, the ethnicity pay gap stood at 10.3 per cent — this means that when a white worker earned £1, on average their black peer only earned £0.90.

When ethnicity clashes with other protected characteristics such as gender or disability, the pay gap widens. While legislation doesn’t always end a pay gap, we need our governments to take decisive action on this issue with mandatory reporting and action plans to close the gap seeming to be a sensible first step.

The legacy of large sections of our history is modern-day racism and we must confront our past if we are to change our future and become an anti-racist country. The dividing line in the Glasgow riot of 1919 was colour — it pitched black sailors against white sailors, regardless of their nationalities.

Which raises the question: what does it mean to be Scottish? There have been blacks living and working in Scotland since the 15th century, and yet we are a less diverse nation than the rest of Britain.

However, even this low level of diversity isn’t reflected in senior positions either in government or the public sector. This week, Scotland elected its sixth First Minister and the first one from a minority ethnic background. Humza Yousaf is also the first Muslim to lead a major UK party.

This is an important milestone which should be celebrated regardless of the party you support. However, among the social media posts celebrating this achievement, there was a significant minority who choose to voice their hatred. For some, Scottishness is linked directly to the colour of your skin and, to them, Yousaf failed the colour test.

The Scottish government published the Race Equality Framework for Scotland in 2016 which set out how they plan to show leadership in advancing race equality and tackling racism over a 15-year period.

We are approximately halfway through that period and at times it can be difficult to see what has been achieved.

Last week, I was fortunate to travel to Cardiff to attend a joint Unison-Welsh government event at the Senedd to launch the anti-racist Wales action plan.

The clear aim of the plan is to make Wales an anti-racist country by 2030 — it is a challenging aim but one that could make a huge difference to black people living and working in Wales. Now we have elected a new First Minister, perhaps we could dare to be as bold as Wales.

Dr Davena Rankin is a Unison NEC member for Scotland.