Global alert

IN recent years, one of the predominant concerns of international organisations, especially those that have a “rights” perspective, has been the impact of the global downturn on various vulnerable sections across the world. Notwithstanding the fact that many countries have signed and ratified conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and are increasingly doing so, it has become difficult for many among them, including those in the developed world, to match their commitments with the harsh realities of the downturn. Structural discrimination, argue rights bodies such as the ILO, has worsened in many cases despite an increase in institutional initiatives to address the same. Austerity measures by governments have not helped.

The ILO has been one of the few organisations that have, without ruffling too many feathers, tried to convey gently but firmly to governments the world over that the effects of the recession are far from over and that ignoring them could lead to a variety of consequences. A recent report, titled “Equality at Work: The continuing challenge”, looks at trends over the past four years and unravels many features that, perhaps, were earlier not looked at with the keenness they deserve.

The report is mainly on discrimination with regard to access to jobs. Worryingly, it has become the rule rather than the exception, exacerbated by the crisis that has had a differential impact on sectors in the economy and has also affected people differently. The report states the obvious to an extent. The risk has not been uniform – it has affected the low-skilled, the migrant, women and even young job aspirants, especially those who are not highly skilled but have had to enter the job market out of sheer necessity. The impact of the downturn on export sectors in many countries has severely affected women, who have been forced into informal forms of employment as a result. They also face acute discrimination in terms of the nature of employment, remuneration, benefits, working conditions, and so on. On an average, their wages are 70 to 80 per cent less than that of men and they “continue to be over-represented in low-income jobs”.

What is of equal concern is that women are increasingly being denied basic entitlements that were taken for granted earlier, such as maternity leave and related benefits. Several equality bodies, says the report, have observed increased discrimination against women in the matter of maternity. Dismissals from jobs on the issue of pregnancy and nursing, non-provision of time for nursing, withholding of pre- and post-natal benefits, denial of promotion, and refusal to allow workers to return to posts they occupied before going on maternity leave are just some forms of harassment faced by women at the workplace. The problem is more for those working in export processing zones.

The report highlights the growing incidence of sexual harassment at the workplace. According to surveys, women most vulnerable to such incidents were financially not independent, single, divorced or migrant women. In general, migrant workers across the globe were particularly affected by the economic crisis – they either had less work or faced deteriorating working conditions, xenophobia and even violence. Some countries, the report stated, excluded migrant workers from social insurance programmes and long-term portable benefits such as old-age pensions.

Anti-immigrant policies

The report also says that hostile political discourse in some countries, probably alluding to recent anti-immigrant pronouncements made by certain leaders of the developed world, has aggravated discriminatory tendencies. Populist policies too, it says, aggravate xenophobic attitudes towards migrants. As compared to those in more regular forms of employment, migrant workers suffered more job losses. This was partly because they were employed in sectors that had been worst affected by the downturn, such as construction.

In general, many countries lowered their quotas for economic migrants. Quoting various studies and reports, the ILO report says that countries such as Australia, Thailand, Poland and the United Kingdom restricted immigration or devised ways to increase the restrictions on the entry of work-permit holders and also their rights and entitlements once they arrived. The report found that the employment gap between immigrants and native workers increased in the years between 2007 and 2009.

Alarmingly, over the past four years, there has been a rise in discrimination against men and women on religious grounds. The report does not specify which religious denomination suffers from discrimination, but it is not difficult to guess, given the contemporary discourse regarding religious extremism.

The impact of debatable income transfer programmes, which place conditions such as child attendance in schools and parents keeping their appointments with health centres, has not helped reduce poverty as such schemes do not address the determinants of economic vulnerability, argues the report quoting a United Nations survey. And, apart from the direct causes of economic vulnerability, factors such as racial, ethnic and gender discrimination exacerbate existing conditions. The irony is that while nations and caucuses such as the Group of Twenty (G-20) have committed themselves to addressing the social dimensions of globalisation following the Global Jobs Pact, adopted by the ILO in 2009, little has been achieved on the ground.

Even the stimulus measures have been disproportionately distributed, with countries choosing to focus on sectors that are male-dominated. And the stimulus responses have had the result of indirectly excluding vulnerable groups from the stimulus measures. In Germany, the report says, two recovery packages targeted sectors with a 78 per cent male and 22 per cent female workforce. Sectors that were to receive financial support from the government included the automotive industry, medical technologies, and construction and financial intermediaries, which employed men in large numbers.

A 2010 study, says the report, showed that the neglect of female-dominated sectors, including the services sector, posed a long-term risk to women's employment. A decline in female employment in the long run can be a distinct possibility, it warns. Even in the United States, where the stimulus package has had a mixed impact on vulnerable groups, an Ohio State University report in 2009 noted that substantial funding given to infrastructure projects could disadvantage racial minorities and women. African Americans, who represent 13 per cent of the population, and women, who comprise nearly half the population, held only 6 per cent and 9.4 per cent of construction jobs respectively. The sharp increase in unemployment in the U.S. since the crisis in 2008 has not affected communities uniformly. The rate of unemployment among African Americans was almost twice as high as among the white population, and the gap widened after the crisis. Similar employment gaps were seen in Europe as well. Even in countries where race categories were self-reported, as in Brazil, studies showed that the unemployment rate among the black and brown workers was higher than among the white workers. The former, who represented 45.3 per cent of the population, accounted for 50 per cent of the unemployed.

The report cautions that a joint paper of the ILO and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had, in 2010, warned that a premature and early push for consolidation would damage macroeconomic growth and subsequently lead to larger deficits and debts. In essence, what the report seems to be saying and reiterating is that governments should not cut down on social spending, especially when dealing with the economic crisis.

However, not all pressures are from inside. A report by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has noted that the IMF lending agreements in the case of Latvia and Ukraine are eliminating investments in education and could leave behind a “lost generation” of young people without adequate skills for employment. Latvia, along with Greece and Ukraine, has initiated fiscal consolidation plans with severe deficits. Interestingly, while social spending and welfare measures bear the brunt, the budgets of labour administration such as inspection services and those of bodies that deal with discrimination issues get compromised. And this, says the report, could be one of the worst social consequences of the economic crisis. While some countries, in particular the Scandinavian countries, have consciously created institutions to deal with these matters, the trend towards reduced social spending appears to be the norm.

Many countries have not adopted the legal provisions to prohibit common forms of gender discrimination. The right to equal remuneration for women and men for work of equal value, as embodied in Convention Number 100, has not been incorporated in the national laws of many countries. The concept of remuneration also does not encompass all forms of compensation, including wages and other benefits. Women, the report says, are a long way from achieving gender equality in the labour market. Here again, many Scandinavian countries have made conscious efforts to increase boardroom participation for women through a system of quotas.

Then, of course, there is the issue of unpaid household work which does not reflect in statistics on gender pay gaps. According to estimates given at the 2009 session of the International Labour Conference, the value of unpaid household work could be equivalent to half the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country. While reviewing maternity legislation last year, the ILO found that maternity benefits provided by many countries were insufficient. Only 39 per cent of African countries were found to provide benefits in accordance with ILO standards, while in Asia, only two of the 23 countries reviewed matched up to the standards. Several equality commissions worldwide have found that discrimination against women on maternity matters continues to be pervasive in spite of long-standing laws, says the report. The lack of adequate paid leave too was an issue in several countries.

What the report recommends as a remedy is not enough. While there has been an ostensible increase in equality policies and harmonisation of national legislation with ILO conventions, what is lacking is a continued commitment and investment of resources. Almost all ILO declarations – such as the Global Jobs Pact and the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation – are lofty and well-meaning, but making them workable depends on policies that nations adopt.

The ILO would ideally like to pay particular attention, as it says, to ensuring equal remuneration for men and women, elimination of racial and ethnic discrimination, and equitable treatment of migrant workers. It would also like to see more countries ratify in spirit the core conventions on equality. But one major obstacle is the availability of adequate information on the different types of discrimination and their intersections. The available information suggests that the situation is bad and that governments should intervene. What U.N. agencies, including the ILO, have been doing, post-crisis, is to warn governments repeatedly not to resort to extreme measures of fiscal consolidation. Successive global reports on unemployment have warned of social tensions and unrest. The present report is yet another wake-up call.