Racism for ARWW Oct 09 event

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Workplace Racism in Ireland   The trade union
view from the Republic of Ireland
David Joyce
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Overview of Presentation

• Evolution of Anti Racist Workplace Week in ROI
• Developments in the Race area and the current
  crisis
• Is it still needed? Making the case.
• Some EU developments
• Emerging issues for trade unions

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Anti Racist Workplace Week

• 1999 to 2007
• Equality Authority with the social partners
  ICTU / IBEC / CIF / IFA etc
• Evaluation and subsequent discussion
• strategy to replace it should be radically
  different from the previous campaigns
• key areas were those of promoting awareness of
  the need for anti-racist workplace activity and
  the promotion of new and good practice in
  anti-racism in Irish workplaces.
• partnership model should continue.
• move from an awareness week to a year long
  strategy with different actions in various
  sectors throughout the year.
• action strategy launched in November 2008 and to
  be implemented in 2009

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Trade Union Actions for ASIW 2009

• Training
• A five day training course was designed and
  piloted in January, with a distinct focus on
  developing integrated workplaces and diversity.
  The aim of this training was to communicate to
  trade unions the benefits and challenges of
  integrated workplaces and to encourage them to
  become active on the issue.
• This five day training was followed up by three
  stand alone seminars that focused on equality and
  diversity. These seminars focused on developing
  the case for being proactive on integrated
  workplaces within the trade union movement and
  also with employers.
• Challenge funds
• The aim of these challenge funds was to enable
  trade unions to implement a practical initiative
  to increase awareness and competency in the area
  of diversity and equality and they have offered
  individual unions the opportunity to introduce a
  dedicated integrated workplace strategy for their
  union, and also the workplaces that they are
  active in.
• A total of 8 challenge funds were awarded to
  different unions and the following initiatives
  are being developed
• Diversity training for shop stewards and
  officials
• Developing diversity audits and policies
• Developing training for trainers on the race
  ground
• Information for employees on diversity and
  discrimination in the workplace
• Training for managing culturally diverse
  workplaces
• In conclusion, the integrated workplaces project
  has provided Congress with a unique opportunity
  to develop and support equality advocates in the
  trade union movement. It has also given affiliate
  unions the possibility to develop their own
  tailored projects,
• Projects supported will be continued and
  mainstreamed by the unions thus ensuring a
  continued focus on the need for a planned and
  systematic approach to the issue of integrated
  workplaces.

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Other developments

• Abolition of NCCRI
• 43 cut to budget of Equality Authority and
  subsequent resignations
• End of National Action Plan Against Racism (NPAR)
• Suggested abolition of the Office of the Minister
  for Integration (McCarthy Report)
• Still needed?

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Statistics

• Number of non-Irish nationals in the labour force
  declined by almost 34,500 in second quarter 2009
• According to latest quarterly national household
  survey, there were an estimated 444,800
  non-Irish nationals aged 15 years and over in the
  State (down 7.2 over the year) (Number peaked at
  491,500 in Q1 2008)
• The estimated number of non-Irish nationals in
  the labour force was 325,400, a decrease of
  35,200 (9.8) over the year and 14.2 of all in
  employment
• ESRI has warned that the "vastly changed"
  economic situation may impact on the attitude of
  Irish nationals to immigrants, giving rise to
  fears that they may be subjected to racist abuse

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Unemployment rates of immigrants typically exceed
those of natives so Ireland no different. But
there was an acceleration in the rate of
unemployment among immigrants for much of 2008,
especially among accession state nationals
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By looking at numbers on the Live Register
relative to numbers in the labour force, we get a
clearer picture of underlying trends. We see a
faster rise in the rate of entry onto the Live
Register for immigrants since early 2008,
especially for accession state nationals.
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Their experience?

• ESRI Research into racial discrimination in
  recruitment
• Commissioned by the Equality Authority, found
  that Job applicants with identifiably non-Irish
  names are less than half as likely to be called
  for interview as those with typical Irish names.
  Compared with similar experiments carried out in
  other countries, the level of discrimination
  recorded for Ireland is high.
• Immigrants at Work
• Philip J. O'Connell and Frances McGinnity is the
  first systematic baseline study that examines
  labour market experiences of migrants in Ireland
  distinguished by ethnicity. key findings of the
  report is that migrants to Ireland fare less well
  than Irish nationals in the Irish labour market
  across a range of dimensions - in terms of
  unemployment levels, of access to privileged
  occupations in the occupational structure, and of
  experiences of discrimination at work and in
  looking for work. Within this finding the report
  also highlights specific and higher levels of
  disadvantage for Black people. English language
  skills are also identified in the report as an
  important factor in determining the quality of
  the migrants' experience.

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Their experience?

• Equality Authority Annual Report 2008
• Race was the second highest category (after age)
  of casefiles at 70
• Cases
• Mr Patrick Maphoso v Chubb Ireland Ltd
• Mr Maphoso brought a claim of discrimination
  against his employer Chubb Ireland to the
  Equality Tribunal in 2007. The company did not
  contest or attend the Tribunal Hearing. The
  Tribunal awarded mr Maphoso 8,000 in
  compensation in a decision dated 15th November
  2007 (DEC-E2007-067). When the respondent failed
  to pay the award mr Maphoso contacted the
  Equality Authority. Circuit Court proceedings
  were issued by the Equality Authority on behalf
  of mr Maphoso to enforce the Tribunals decision.
  The complaint has now been successfully resolved
  with full payment of the award of 8,000 and a
  further payment of 500 interest.
• A Complainant v A Recruitment Company
• The complainant applied for a position through
  the recruitment company but her application was
  not progressed to a proper interview. The
  complainant was initially singled out as a
  non-Irish national and dealt with differently to
  the Irish applicants. The applicant subsequently
  received a telephone call from the recruitment
  agency which lasted a couple of minutes. She was
  not offered an interview for the position for
  which she applied. She was subsequently informed
  in the companys response to her complaint that
  her English was not considered of a sufficient
  standard to progress her application further.
  The applicant did not accept this reason as she
  had previously worked as an interpreter for a
  number of State services. Following the lodging
  of a submission by the Equality Authority on
  behalf of the complainant, an offer was made by
  the solicitors for the recruitment company. The
  matter was settled for a substantial sum.

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Their experience?

• Equality Tribunal 2008 Report
• Employment Equality Highlights
• 28 increase in Employment Equality claims in
  2008
• 100 increase in claims on the age ground
• 17 increase in claims on the race ground

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What we know

• On earnings, Barrett and McCarthy (2007) showed
  an immigrant earnings disadvantage of 18
  relative to comparable natives, on average
• But no disadvantage for immigrants from
  English-speaking countries
• For accession state nationals, the disadvantage
  was 45

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NERA inspections 2008
Sector Agriculture Catering Retail Grocery Hotels Contract Cleaning Security Construction Electrical REA Breaches 37 73 64 78 85 53 62 47 Arrears 45,819 682,239 136,046 329,684 284,068 340,610 710,475 313,351
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Uncovering the real story

• Migrant workers employed as restaurant workers
  have been the largest group reporting workplace
  exploitation (MRCI)
• 53 earned less than the minimum hourly wage
• 45 worked 9 or more hours per day
• 44 did not get rest breaks
• 85 did not receive extra pay for Sunday work
• 85 did not receive overtime pay
• 48 did not receive bank holiday pay
• 34 did not receive their annual leave
  entitlements
• 51 did not receive a pay slip
• 84 did not receive a contract or terms of
  employment
• 89 stated that their employment rights are not
  displayed at work
• 15 reported an injury at work

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Some Parting Shots.

• NCCRI
• continue to have clear and publicly articulated
  focus on addressing racism and promoting
  interculturalism in all relevant government
  policies and initiatives ensuring that this focus
  is not reduced to only its important component of
  securing integration of third country migrants
• ensure that initiatives on racism and
  interculturalism involve all majority and
  minority populations who are part of Ireland now
  or who like Travellers have been part of Ireland
  for a long time
• continue to support high quality training and
  education on racism awareness and ensure that
  such training is maintained as part of the
  continuous development of all state and local
  officials
• continue to support independent monitoring and
  reporting of racist incidents
• strive to offer support and resources to
  anti-racism organisations community and minority
  groups as an essential part of supporting the
  most vulnerable
• ensure the full and active participation of
  minorities including Travellers and migrants in
  the development and review of all policies and
  initiatives aimed at them
• ensure that the gender dimension of racism and
  associated multiple forms of discrimination are
  named and addressed.
• Continue to promote partnership and cooperation
  in initiatives to address racism and promote
  interculturalism on a North/South basis.

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Parting Shots.

• NPAR Chairperson, Lucy Gaffney, January 2009
• an absolute disaster if our work over the last
  four years is not carried forward.
• NPAR, however, was only meant to be a beginning,
  and not an end in itself.
• For that reason, I am extremely concerned that in
  the midst of an economic crisis afflicting this
  country on a scale few of us anticipated when
  NPAR was established with its four year remit,
  organisations working in the area of integration
  and interculturalism are the first victims of
  Government cutbacks.
• A decision has clearly been made that we can no
  longer afford to confront the potential for
  racism, precisely at the time when many
  immigrants living in Ireland are at their most
  vulnerable.
• We should be investing in schemes and projects to
  ensure that the type of social problems and
  tensions between immigrants and the local
  population that have afflicted other European
  countries with large numbers of foreign nationals
  do not emerge in Ireland. This is especially
  necessary during times of economic downturn when
  such tensions have a tendency to emerge.
• welcome that the Office of the Minister for
  Integration has been established to drive forward
  integration policy. But by creating a ministry
  that does not have a seat at Cabinet is the
  Government in danger of limiting the potential
  for racism to be addressed at the highest level
  of decision-making in Ireland?
• put anti-racism, interculturalism and integration
  at the heart of national policy and Irish public
  life, rather than allow them become the sole
  concern of one section of a Government Department
  or the sole responsibility of a Junior Minister.
• For that reason, the development of a new
  national action plan should be considered by the
  Taoiseach

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Some EU developments

• Conditions for free movement
• more protection of workers and fair competition
• Resolution adopted by the Steering Committee of
  the ETUC, Brussels, 28 April 2009
• having regard in particular to the rise of
  protectionism, and the potential increase in
  nationalism and xenophobia, in the context of the
  economic and financial crisis, and the recent
  judgments of the European Court of Justice.
• The EU needs a rigorous commitment from its
  Member States to fully implement the free
  movement of workers provisions of the Treaty
  across the EU, based on equal treatment and
  nondiscrimination of workers and companies in the
  place where the work is done (the host country
  principle).

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ETUC Proposals on Posting Directive

• to strengthen it and better achieve its aims of
  guaranteeing fair competition and the respect for
  workers rights.
• The objectives of the Posting Directive, i.e.
  respecting the rights of workers and ensuring a
  climate of fair competition must be more clearly
  laid down in the body of the Directive.
• Free movement of workers should be covered by the
  Treaty provisions written for this purpose, i.e.
  especially Article 39 with its strong equal
  treatment requirement based on the host country
  principle.
• Member States and social partners must be allowed
  to use effective monitoring and enforcement
  mechanisms
• Define what is or is not transnational provision
  of services, to prevent companies to manipulate
  applicable law and standards by the use of
  letterbox-companies.
• The minimum character of the Posting Directive
  must be restored, i.e. the notion that the
  Directive provides minimum-protection (the core
  of rights that must be applied), which does not
  prevent legal or collectively agreed standards to
  provide the workers concerned with more
  favourable conditions (the standards that can be
  applied), as long as equal treatment and
  non-discrimination of local and foreign companies
  is ensured.
• Very restrictive interpretation of the notion of
  public policy provisions must be revised, to
  include social objectives and the protection of
  workers

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ETUC Proposals ctd..

• Member States in their role of public authorities
  contracting out public works (public procurement)
  should be allowed via social clauses to demand
  observance of locally applicable collective wages
  and working conditions by any company, local or
  foreign, tendering for the contract
• The Directive should more clearly respect the
  different industrial relations models in Member
  States as well as the instrument of collective
  bargaining as a flexible and dynamic process
  this Directive may not be interpreted so as
  affecting in any way the right of trade unions to
  take collective action and to negotiate, conclude
  and enforce collective agreements in order to
  improve the living and working conditions of
  workers).
• In addition, less rigid criteria should be
  developed to judge if a collective agreement can
  be upheld vis-à-vis a foreign service provider,
  for instance in situations in which the vast
  majority of local companies is in practice bound
  by the collective agreement.
• An ETUC expert group of trade union experts and
  academics is currently working on the legal and
  technical aspects of these proposals, and it is
  the intention to put a memorandum with proposals
  and recommendations before the ETUC Executive
  Committee later this year.

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Equal Treatment Directives

• ERA Complaint Ireland is in breach of EU
  Equality Directives. 
• ERA members contend  that  the  Irish Government
  has used the cover of financial cutbacks in
  public expenditure to mount a targeted attack on
  Irish Equality and human rights institutions. The
  cuts to the bodies coupled with the accelerated
  decentralisation programme of the Equality
  Authority have crucially undermined the ability
  of the Equality Authority to function as a
  designated national body under EU equality
  Directives on race and gender, rendering it
  unable to effectively fulfill its prescribed
  functions.

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Joint ETUC and Social Platform Declaration to
Swedish Presidency

• 1. Adopt the draft Directive on
  non-discrimination outside employment
• 2. Address remaining gender gaps and ensure
  gender mainstreaming,
• 3. Mainstream equality in all EU policies
• 4. Invest in strong social policies and public
  services that support equality, and develop
  proactive migration and integration policies
• 5 Work in partnership with trade unions and civil
  society organisations

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Union membership

• Unions do not collect data by nationality we
  are trying...
• Unions produce information in range of languages
• Unions have taken on staff from new communities
• Unions build strategic links with NGOs

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Key Issues for trade unions

• Organising and Recruitment
• Growth of insecure employment
• EU Commission desire to push country of origin
  principle
• Deficiencies in Posted Worker Directive
• Potential for poverty and social exclusion for
  these new communities
• Stepping into the vacuum.

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Conclusions

• National recovery should not be achieved at the
  expense of dismantling hard-won protections for
  the rights of the vulnerable and weakest in our
  society or institutions to combat discrimination
  (including racism) and promote equality and human
  rights.  Any Plan for National Recovery should
  include a strong, effective, independent and
  adequately resourced equality and human-rights
  infrastructure so that we can emerge from this
  crisis with a better, fairer society that
  respects and protects the dignity of all its
  members.  

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Thank you for listening
david.joyce_at_ictu.ie www.ictu.ie/equality/race.html