Co-op is campaigning to break the ‘class ceiling’ as nearly a fifth of UK adults believe they have missed out on a job due to their background, accent or social status.
The convenience retailer has launched a nine-point plan on social mobility and is calling on other businesses to adopt similar measures.
The campaign looks to see socio-economic background becoming the 10th protected characteristic under the 2010 Equalities Act, as 72% of people support a change in the law.
This comes as research by ICM conducted on behalf of Co-op found that 41% of young people believe what they achieve in life is determined by their socio-economic background.
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Out of of over 8,500 people surveyed, over a third (35%) agree that lots of careers aren’t open to people like them and that their accent and the way they talk reduce the opportunities available to them.
As a result, Co-op’s nine-point business plan looks to create an internal social mobility taskforce to work through the findings of its ongoing research with grassroots social mobility charity, Making the Leap.
It also includes making changes to internal job adverts to ensure colleagues see how their skills could suit a sideways move or promotion. The retailer looks to help employees become more financially resilient and will establish a new mentoring scheme for colleagues from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
“It cannot be right that those from less advantaged backgrounds are almost twice as likely to end up in working class jobs than others from more privileged backgrounds,” Co-op Group CEO, Shirine Khoury-Haq, said.
“Our evidence shows socio-economic background can act as a brake on progression and performance – this has to change. We want to lead by example, taking action to identify where unfairness is holding our people back.
“And that’s why we are also calling on the government and other parties to make it a priority in their manifesto and it becoming illegal to discriminate against an individual because of their background,” she added.
Co-op launched a flexible compassionate leave policy in May to better support its 57,000 colleagues when dealing with bereavement.
