Watchdog accused of racial bias in bonus scheme
CMA is facing a claim that its performance awards discriminate against black, Asian and minority staff
THE competition regulator has been accused of racial discrimination in its bonus scheme by a group of non-white staff who missed out on a performancerelated top up.
The Competition and Markets Authority is facing a claim at a London employment tribunal brought by three employees who allege that its bonus awards discriminate against black, Asian and minority ethnic (Bame) staff.
The CMA introduced the award scheme at the beginning of 2021 and decided that bonuses would be based on the performance ratings employees received in the previous year.
The ratings system consisted of five grades and staff placed in the top two grades received a bonus.
The three employees bringing the claim were placed in the lower grades and allege that the failure to pay them a bonus amounts to an act of “indirect race discrimination”, according to documents filed at the tribunal.
The employees, Sonica Sharma, Esther Izundu and Agni Singh, argue that the scheme “puts Bame employees at a particular disadvantage” and allege that the CMA cannot show it to be a proportionate means of deciding whether staff receive bonuses.
Documents submitted to the tribunal also show that the regulator conducted an internal review of Bame performance ratings between April 2019 and March 2020 and shared this document with the Public and Commercial Services Union ahead of pay negotiations.
Judge Gardiner, who is overseeing the case, said: “On one reading of the statistics, it appeared that Bame staff were not awarded the top two grades in the proportions that would be expected given their composition within the workforce.”
When asked by the union to publish the review to staff at the CMA, bosses at the regulator refused, documents show.
Despite the claim being brought outside the time limit usually allowed by employment tribunals, Judge Gardiner ruled that the case could proceed as the three employees did not have the necessary information about pay disparities to bring the suit any earlier than they did.
The claim was made at a preliminary hearing and the tribunal has yet to make any ruling on the allegations being levelled against the CMA.
The final hearing for the case is to take place in February 2024.
The CMA declined to comment. The complaint comes as regulators seek to boost diversity within their own ranks and among the companies they regulate. Last year, the Government’s Parker review set a target that each FTSE 100 board has at least one director of colour by 2021. Boards of FTSE 250 companies are expected to reach this target by 2024.
The CMA is currently recruiting a new chief executive, with interim chief executive Sarah Cardell a frontrunner to be named full-time boss.
In July, The Daily Telegraph revealed ministers were preparing to block Sheldon Mills, the chairman of Stonewall, from becoming chief executive, following a row over the regulator’s affiliation with the equalities charity.
Separately, the CMA has come under pressure to focus on ending consumer rip-offs rather than stopping big mergers. Whitehall and legal insiders have criticised the CMA’S recent track record of blocking deals that it is claimed would have helped boost the economy.