Discrimination referred to bad treatment against a certain group of people of a specific category or class. There are two types of discrimination: the direct and the indirect discrimination. Direct discrimination according to the European Commission (2003) defined as ‘when a person is treated less well, in comparison with someone else, because of his or her racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.’Indirect discrimination occurs when a person want to get a job and for that job required special qualifications or criteria where challenge against a certain group of people and cannot be excused objective. The phenomenon of discrimination existed for many years ago and unfortunately still exist and sometimes in high degree. There are many examples of discrimination like the race, color or gender discrimination which are more popular and more often. Some examples of racism discrimination are Hitler and the American people who bad treated the black expatriates. Also another popular and very often discrimination is about the gender of workers. In countries such as Afghanistan or Iran women are not manipulated equal as men thus have a sidetrack position in all areas culture. The face of discrimination in the employment is not such an easy problem, so the only factor that can stop those discriminations is the application of law in all areas and especially in the workplace. In this essay we are going to examine if the legislation is an effective mechanism for eliminating gender/ethnic discriminatory practices in employment.
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According to Crosby and Stockdale (2007) sex discrimination can be defined as ‘when a person is or people are treated unfairly in the work context because of gender.’ There exist, and always will, the huge gap between men and women as concerns the equality. Particularly, in the workplace, we can notice that women do not treated equally as men and thus we have the sex discrimination in employment. This unfair treatment against women leads to resort in Employment Tribunals and claim their rights. Taking in mind the Article 23, the equality between men and women must exist in all areas, including employment, work and pay. The principle of equality shall not embarrass the preservation or approval of measures providing for specific advantages in favor of the under-represented sex, all the employers have to respect and obey it. Many women claiming to earn the same reward opportunities as men, can get a promotion or decision-making roles, have the same employment benefits as men, to have the chance of training and development opportunities, being protected by the law and having the chance for a convenience working.
Some statistics show that the average hourly earnings for full-time working women are 82% of those of men and the part-time rate is 61% of that of men. Also the 20% of women which working full time earn less than £200 per week compared with the 8% of men. Women have the 37% of managerial positions in businesses and it can be notice that women that working in the private sector earn better wages than those who are working in the public sector. As regards the flexible working 63% of women are likely to work flexibly, 78% of housework is doing by women and the 80% of women are becoming the victims of violent crimes.
Occupational segregation is another barrier which prevent women accomplishment their obligation in the workplace. It is the distribution of jobs between men and women which require specific qualifications. For example masculine jobs which are engineers, electrical, pilots, firemen etc and the henpecked jobs which are nurses, teachers and stewardess. Although there are some exceptions like some women are being judges or senior police officers. ‘Glass ceiling’ represents the various barriers that women may face. ‘Glass ceiling’ prevent them from having an increased in their income or overall go on with their career unlikely with the efforts, achievements and qualifications that may have and offer.
The consequences of the sex discrimination are the unfair dismissal for the following reasons: pregnancy, marital status and child care. It is very frequent for a woman to loss her job because of her pregnancy or because is divorced. According to Lockton (2006), ‘In the Court’s view, the dismissal of a pregnant woman who had been appointed for an indefinite period, could not be justified on grounds relating to her inability to fulfill a condition of her employment contract temporarily.’ As a result we have to try and create new policies which include a much broader range of women e.g. black women, working-class women and single mothers, who suffer from discrimination and disadvantages. Furthermore women will tend to leave the workforce because of the child care, of not being as productive as job requires, or choose to earn less by staying in a friendly position or even to experience bias from her employer or her colleagues.
Another form of discrimination is the race or ethnic discrimination which referrers to minority of groups in society which are less favorable treated from other groups such an example black and Asian people compared to white and English people. There is a law called Race Relation Act where established in 1976 where prohibits this type of discrimination on race, color, nationality and ethnic origin grounds. Sir Macpherson suggested that ‘the collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their color, and culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behavior which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people.’ The black and Asian people face the discrimination by their employers in the workplace. They usual concentrated in particular jobs, have fewer opportunities to recruitment in job than white people, they work in lower jobs with very poor pay and the most of them are unemployed.
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Employers cannot discriminate against the job applicants because of the racial ground in terms of intention who should offer the job, which employment is offered or by denying employment. Also employers cannot discriminate on their current employees about the racial ground in terms of which is the employer, the way that can get opportunities for promotion, training and many other benefits or by unbind because they did not bow to their wishes (racial harassment). According to Bell (2002) ‘In the UK, during 1999/2000, the police recorded 47.814 racist incidents, most involving damage to property or verbal harassment.’ The International Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination has the Article 4(a) which says that to announce as a fast punishable by law…impulse to racial discrimination, as well as all acts of violence or impulse to such acts against any race or group of persons of another color or ethnicity.
As it mortgaged above, racial discrimination is prohibited by law so many people who had faced any type of discrimination can complaint to the Employment Tribunal. There is three month time limit for presenting in Employment Tribunal and the decision of the tribunal is sometimes further than compensation. The Employment Tribunal may recommend to the employer ways to reduce bad effects of the discrimination such as an apology. Nowadays discrimination has reduced in very high levels because all the employers try to respect and obey the law. By the incorporation of black and Asian people in the workforce had been able to acquire successful jobs. Also women in the 20th century have more opportunities and are protected by law. They have made improvements on areas of politics, education, employment etc.
In conclusion the gender and ethnic discrimination in the workplace is prohibited by law. Unfortunately some employers violate the law and discriminate against of their employees. Women, black and Asian people faced most recently the racism of their employers and many cases transferred to the Employment Tribunal. Nowadays this phenomenon has reduced and employers are training and have the knowledge to avoid any situation of discrimination not only from their side but also form the side of the workers. In recent years women and black people have very important positions all over the world and an example is the minister of USA Barack Obama who had competed with a woman, Hillary Clinton, for the chair of USA. This example shows us that men and women, black or white are equal, have the same opportunities and are protected by the law from any type of discrimination.
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