Recommendation 10

There is a link between the occupation of a person and their exposure, vulnerability and risk of contracting the virus. We fear that work on formally establishing this link has been significantly delayed. No clear assessments have been made on whether BAME workers in shutdown sectors have experienced a loss of income. We believe that the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s inquiry into the experiences and treatment of ethnic minority workers in lower paid roles in the health and social care sector should be the start, but not the extent, of its work in assessing the relationship between coronavirus, occupation and inequality. We recommend that the Equality and Human Rights Commission extends the terms of reference for the inquiry and commits to considering occupation as a risk factor in a wider range of 50 Unequal impact? Coronavirus and BAME people sectors. We recommend that the inquiry focus should investigate the economic impacts of coronavirus for workers and determine if there is a causal link between occupation and exposure, infection and mortality rates.