Expanding Opportunities in the Global Marketplace

By Laura Duncan on 05/18/2011 @ 02:13 PM

On Monday, May 16, No Limits co-hosted the event “Expanding Opportunities in the Global Marketplace”, in partnership with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. This event was centered on the release of an ILO report which details the global trends in employment discrimination. We had the opportunity to hear from the main actors in fighting discrimination; we were joined by Barbara Shailor from the U.S. Department of State, Sara Manzano-Diaz from the U.S. Department of Labor, Sarah Fox from the AFL-CIO, Ronnie Goldberg from the USCIB and Marcia Greenberger from the National Women’s Law Center.

No Limits was also honored by the presence of two authors of the ILO report, Guy Ryder and Lisa Wong-Ramesar. Their report combines data on workplace discrimination across the world, analyzing trends and identifying specific problem areas. It covers several categories of discrimination, including race, color, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, HIV status, disability, age, sexual orientation, genetics and lifestyle.

The report brings good as well as bad news. The good news is that there has been an increase in laws and policies that promote equality in employment, as well as a rise in the number of national equality bodies, or ombudsmen, who deal with issues of discrimination. The bad news is that these legal and policy developments are not felt by everyone. There is a tendency to give lower priority to policies that promote awareness of workers’ rights, and equality bodies are often understaffed and underfunded. Moreover, some groups of workers tend to fall outside the scope of labor laws, such as casual workers, domestics and those working in export processing zones. Finally, the report criticizes the lack of data on the issue, stating that the information is mostly collected in an ad hoc manner.

Our discussion on Monday focused mostly on workplace discrimination in the U.S., where the effects of the recession were particularly strong on minorities, who were affected by the reduction in the construction and tourism sectors. On a brighter note, we were happy to hear that there is widespread support for the ratification of ILO Convention 111, which deals with employment discrimination. This convention is supported by the Obama administration, by labor representatives and by business. Contrary to popular thought, employers don’t see anti-discrimination laws as a burden to their business. They view these laws as an asset, because they enable businesses to employ a more diverse and talented pool of workers.

The experts also stressed, however, that ratifying Convention 111 will not end workplace discrimination in the U.S. In order to effectively combat this problem, we need additional tools, such as more detailed and disaggregated data collection, removal of barriers to unionization and collective bargaining, and laws that will allow employees to identify unfair treatment by employers, such as the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Our discussion was recorded and can be viewed here.

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