July 2002 - Evangelicals Now - Christian Newspaper

Your name and address, of course; your age and marital status, for pension purposes.

Perhaps your race too, if racial monitoring is carried out, and there may be racial targets for your employer to meet. My employer, one of a group of bodies created by the Greater London Act 1999, is compiling new databases. For the first time in modern history, monitoring of the religion and sexual orientation of employees is to begin.

The instrument is a staff census, originally intended to update basic personnel data, including next of kin records. But equal-opportunity campaigners persuaded my local authority to add new questions on religion and sex.

The religion question is the same as in the national census. The other innovation asks if the employee is an 'out at work' member of certain specified sexual minorities. 'Out at work' means that colleagues know.

There are about 400 local authorities in Britain, and none have previously done this. (In Northern Ireland, religious monitoring is found in the public sector, but so too is the lethal tension in the community that goes with such a high profile.)

Implications

The implications of these new databases are considerable, and have been unpublicised. The questions are voluntary (just as the government proposal for a new identity card is voluntary) but the results will be used to shape policy. For example, allocation of training courses by the employer will be monitored according to the religion of the trainees, to promote fairness. In any case, we are all familiar with voluntary arrangements that become compulsory, once the administrative teething troubles have been ironed out.

The census arrangement is likely to be extended quickly to other local authorities that are part of the 'GLC Mark II'. Their plans call for close co-ordination in equality activity. Pressure groups like Stonewall are deeply involved in the development of policy. Further questions about both the religion and sexuality of employees may follow, with different information sought by different authorities. Equality advisors throughout the country will press for monitoring of the religion and sexuality of employees there too. There will be varying standards of data security, not as good as my own employer. One may correlate, for example, all those who report in a local authority census their race as Asian, but their religion as Christian, and whose families may well be converts. (Apostasy merits death in Islam.)

Rolling programme

The census measures are part of a rolling programme of initiatives. Some London local authorities now co-sponsor a Ramadan calendar. My own has produced an equalities calendar that features over ten religions, including Paganism and Confucianism. There is to be an annual gay-pride breakfast, including elected members. But let's focus for a moment on the religion question.

There was a time when magistrates in the counties had lists of nonconformist houses in each district. Soviet bloc countries also listed believers and might deny them access to higher education, for example. Lists are essential tools for secret police and vigilante squads alike.

Christians have learned to distrust any involvement by the authorities in listing believers. And what about people who change their religion or their sexual lifestyle, but were listed differently in a staff census?

But really it is not in the interests of any believers, including Muslims, for lists to be created which could be used by the authorities. Similarly the Jewish community, though it enthusiastically welcomed the national census question on religion should ask itself if it really wants lists of Jewish believers to be created by local authorities, especially in certain parts of the country.

Of course, there is an internal problem in the present equal opportunities drive - some of the religions they are promoting are intensely hostile to the sexual 'liberation', or for that matter the advance of women, which the campaigners are also supporting.

But the equalities drive will continue. An equality adviser can earn around £30,000 annually, and there are many in post, with excellent opportunities for much higher salaries. Advancement comes by pushing the boundaries further, getting initiatives into the annual plan of action. Religion is being targeted for monitoring.

There is also European Union pressure, with new regulations on the way about discrimination by religion, age, and sexuality, though this staff census has been rushed in ahead of any legal requirement.

What can be done?

Ironically, it is the Human Rights Act which may offer relief. Its interpretation is still being shaped by the courts, but Article 8 enjoins the right to respect for private and family life. Do these questions violate that? Are they really necessary for local authorities to fulfil their obligations? Surely they can avoid discrimination without creating such records of the personal lives of their employees.

Once lists are created, they take on lives of their own, and can be transmitted instantly by email. This need not stop at employees. Local authorities can also claim that their council tax payers may be suffering religious or lifestyle discrimination and start recording such details for each household.

For believers, this new form of local monitoring offers nothing for our comfort. The dilemma will be real not only for individuals, but also for office Christian fellowships and chaplains . Do they recommend their members to get recorded as Christians? Experiences in other countries suggest that registered believers may receive privileges, but only so far as they toe the party line.

Should faith be on file?

How much personal information does your employer know about you?

Implications

Rolling programme

What can be done?

Leslie Price

Main Articles

Other articles