Millions of workers still face widespread discrimination in employment and at the workplace—even though 65 years ago, 175 countries adopted an international convention seeking equality of opportunity and treatment.
“We still find that employers find very clever ways in which to create vulnerability in the workplace,” said Nomzama Zondo, executive director of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa, speaking this week at a panel in South Africa.
Panelists gathered in Johannesburg to discuss “A Promise Not Realised: The Right to Non-Discrimination in Work and Employment,” an Issue Brief by the International Lawyers Assisting Workers Network (ILAW) in collaboration with the Equal Rights Trust (ERT).
The panel in South Africa follows an initial launch in spring, and is among several planned this year in countries highlighted by the report, including Colombia, Brazil, the United Kingdom and India.
“A Promise Not Realised” first looks at conventions countries have adopted, such as the 1958 International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 111 Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation or Discrimination which creates a legal obligation on countries to prohibit and remedy discrimination at work.
Ultimately, the report identifies the means by which countries can create enabling environments to effectively prevent workplace discrimination and provide labor justice when it occurs.
Discrimination Widespread in Informal Economy
The report also specifically addresses non-discrimination in the informal economy, recognizing that those working informally lack recourse to justice and remedy.
“There is an inherently discriminatory dynamic between those within and without the formal employment sector,” says Jim Fitzgerald, ERT director, overviewing the report in the initial webinar earlier this year.
Panelists said the research confirms that informal economy workers are more likely to experience discrimination and mistreatment because of a lack of recourse to justice and remedy.
Ensuring non-discrimination in the informal economy is key: Some 2 billion people rely on informal work as a source of income, according to the ILO.
Many informal workers also are migrant workers. As in the majority of countries in the report, some South African respondents noted that their legal status means migrant workers may be disproportionately concentrated in particular forms of work and experience unique challenges in these areas.
As Fitzgerald said: “International law does not simply require states to prohibit discrimination. It requires states to eliminate discrimination through ‘all appropriate means.’ “
Platform workers are a growing group of informal sector workers globally, including in South Africa, where Omar Parker described how recently formed unions are grappling with achieving rights. “The only way now for us in the English e-hailing sector is to be organized independently,” said Parker, general secretary for the Western cape E-hailing Association (WCEA).
Unions a Key Driver of Change
The report finds that in nearly all countries studied, experts spoke of the central role of trade unions in achieving legislative reform on equality and non-discrimination.
With a collective bargaining agreement, union members also can negotiate for equality of opportunity and treatment with respect to employment occupation, with a view to eliminating any discrimination.
Participants noted that governments must create an enabling environment for workers to exercise their freedom of association, enabling them to demand equality in the workplace.
“Discrimination is fundamental about power asymmetries in a society, which can most effectively be addressed through collective action,” said Jeff Vogt, ILAW Network chair and Rule of Law director at the Solidarity Center. “We hope that this research is useful in providing evidence and examples as to how laws and institutions can be improved to make anti-discrimination laws more effective in practice through collective protection and redress.”
In addition to Parker and Zondo, panelists included: Siza Nyiko Mlambo, leader of the Simunye Workers Forum; and speakers Sam Barnes, ERT researcher; and Debbie Collier, a lead report researcher, member of the Center for Transformative Regulation of Work and law professor at the University of the Western Cape.
The ILAW Network, a project of the Solidarity Center, includes more than 1,300 members in 95 countries, regularly provides legal labor rights assistance and information, and publishes The Global Labour Rights Reporter on key issues in four languages.