News

BT's Jacqueline Jones with UNI's Gerd Rohde

Over three days in Ljubljana, Slovenia, unions from across Europe are drawing up an action plan to change the face of the ICT workforce and bring diversity to the industry.

It will mean ending the image of an industry dominated by young, white males who enjoy or endure a long working hour culture and who frequently move jobs to develop their career - or to overcome frustrations at work.

More women workers, more older workers, better skill and career development and fairer treatment for migrant workers are union targets being debated at the UNI-Europa ICT conference, which wants to build dialogue with employers to create this diverse workforce.

It means encouraging more women to consider an ICT career. “It’s okay to be techie - it doesn’t mean you’re a nerd,” said Kathleen Maes of LBC-NVK Belgium, reporting on a workshop session.

The union demand for change comes as ICT faces a growing skills shortage, declining interest at university in computing sciences and demographic changes that will mean fewer youngsters.

Employers who recruit in the same old ways and in the same old pools, inflexible working arrangements and long hours, a gender pay gap, a lack of transparency in work allocation and promotion and fears of outsourcing are all obstacles to more women entering ICT.

The boom-bust nature of the industry and the threat of outsourcing are also deterrents to women applying for jobs and ICT women professionals have higher drop out rates than men.

Career progression becomes particularly hard for women who take a family break and their pay gap with male colleagues widens.

For older workers - and in ICT 40 can be an age barrier - there is also a growing demand for working patterns which support a better work-life balance.



“The industry cannot go on in the old way - it has to take a long term approach to recruitment and it has to reflect the society in which it operates,” said UNI’s Gerhard Rohde.

“As trade unionists we have the opportunity and the responsibility to make a difference,” said IT President Peter Skyte. “The social and economic achievement of many groups and individuals is being undercut by discrimination.”

“It’s odd that a 21st century technology has a workforce that would have been normal in a 19th century environment,” said Bob Collins, Chief Commissioner of Northern Ireland’s Equality Commission.

“The combined effect of an over-reliance on a young, male ICT workforce and the use of migrant labour is to create a highly segregated ICT workforce,” said Dr Juliet Webster, of Work and Equality Research presenting a background report to delegates.



The ICT sector employs 5.3 million people in the European Union but only 19% of them are women across the EU’s 27 member states (2004 figures). A shortage of skilled ICT professionals will reach 16% in Europe next year and there is a growing demand for “soft skills” - including business, communication and team working skills.

“The problem of skills shortages is one of several compelling reasons for practicing diversity management in ICT,” said Dr Webster.

But it’s not just a change of heart to fill a skills gap that is being demanded.

A more diverse ICT workforce - all ages and a better balance of men and women - will improve corporate cultures, help in dealing with customers and reaching new markets, improve the utilisation of skills and team working and help companies avoid pitfalls with laws to outlaw sex and age discrimination.

It would reflect a commitment to social justice and corporate social responsibility, said Dr Webster.

It may also help improve job satisfaction - a recent survey showed ICT professionals near the bottom of an employee job satisfaction league table.

“White, male and worried,” summed up the existing ICT workforce, said UNI-Europa Regional Secretary Bernadette Ségol who called for a “diversity revolution”.



UNI-Europa is one of the organisations backing a two-year European Union funded project called Mature@eu to promote a balanced age structure at work by overcoming all strands of age discrimination (visit www.mature-project.eu).

“We have to tackle recruitment in a different way against the background of demographic change,” said the project’s Maria Schwarz Wölzl. The mission is to support employers in recruiting and selecting mature people and launch an eLearning platform that will be available to all.

“We have to identify the obstacles that lead corporate employers to push older workers to leave the company,” said Mirjana Oblak, from Slovenia.



There was other good news at the conference. The CWU’s Bill Taylor reported on a UK government-backed initiative to set up Computer Clubs for Girls to involve nearly 100,000 10-14 year olds in new technology. “We want women to have the opportunity to do the well paid jobs that have been done by men,” said Bill.

In Japan telecom giant NTT has a programme to develop the skills of middle-aged ICT workers, said Shoji Morishima of NWJ Japan who is also UNI Telecom President. The union has negotiated childcare leave, nursing leave, telecommuting, special working hours and re-employment programmes to particularly help women with child care or family responsibilities.

BT UK’s Jacqueline Jones reported on their drive - with the backing of BT unions - to increase the number of women telecom engineers in its OpenReach network through training recruiters, innovative advertising and culture changes.

Women’s recruitment to work on BT’s “poles and holes” has already increased to 6.5% of intake and the target is 10%. But the company is also working on retaining the women. “To retain women engineers we have to change the culture and smash stereotypes in engineering,” said Jacqueline.

Presenting mature@eu - Gerhard Rohde, Mirjama Oblak and Maria Schwarz Wölzl

There were calls from delegates for women role models in ICT.

Asa Holmgren from SIF Sweden - herself a computer science graduate - called for male AND female role models to change cultures in the industry. “We need male role models who leave at five o’clock to pick up their child or go home to look after kids when they are sick. We also have to encourage girls to have a technical interest - we need to start at pre-school.”

Some companies no longer hold meetings before 9am or after 3pm to make it possible for flexible working hours.

Companies with agreements on diversity need to implement them and progress needs to be monitored, said Franca Salis Madinier, of F3C-CFDT France and Kathleen Maes.

UNI-Europa was urged to lobby in Brussels over the diversity campaign for ICT.

Tax relief for the over 50s, greater use of re-deployment and action to tackle burnout were some of the other workshop suggestions.