THE SCOTTISH government will target ethnic minorities with its skills strategy after union leaders held a meeting with ministers to express fears that they would be first in the firing line during a recession.

Stewart Maxwell, the communities minister, said funding for the SNP government's racial equality strategy would be announced "imminently", and that the skills programme would target areas with shortages of particular groups of workers. He added: "We must make sure people don't use the economic downturn as an excuse to maltreat one particular group."

The announcement follows a recent meeting between the STUC's black workers' committee, Maxwell and Lesley Irving, the head of the government's race, religion and refugees integration team, in which the committee raised its concerns about the possible impact of the credit crunch on black and minority ethnic (BME) workers.

Davidson Chademana, a member of the black workers' committee, said: "There is a very real feeling within BME communities that black workers will be the first victims of any economic downturn. Those who do remain in jobs will be in areas of low pay and poor conditions, a multiple exploitation of sorts.

"We have to be wary of any polarisation within the workforce, where economic hardship may breed racism and prejudice."

Mary Senior, assistant secretary to the committee, said that BME workers felt they were now at greater risk because many are on temporary contracts and employed below their skill levels in sectors with a higher turnover of staff.

She added that some employers wrongly believed migrant workers had an unclear legal status, and that BME workers claim to have faced greater racial prejudice from the wider community and in the workplace during periods of higher unemployment. They also already face unemployment rates twice as high as white Scots.

Maxwell, who has been invited to speak at the black workers' committee annual conference in October, added: "We have a clear view that economic success depends on getting the maximum out of all the people in Scotland, not certain groups, and groups shouldn't suffer disproportionately, whether ethnic minorities or in terms of gender."

CBI Scotland's assistant director David Lonsdale said companies were heading for "choppier economic waters", with construction companies - many of which rely on migrant workers - finding it particularly tough.

But he added: "For those firms forced to make redundancies because of poor market conditions, this will be done in line with where the firm can best absorb a reduction in manpower and will have no link whatsoever to an employee's ethnicity.

"Employers are well aware of the legal requirements on them to treat staff equally, irrespective of their ethnic origin, and if there is any failure to adhere to this, they will rightly be brought to book."