Roma in the Employment Sector in Five Countries: Issues for Policy- and Law-Makers

1. Roma in the Employment Sector in Five Countries: Issues for Policy- and Law-Makers Claude Cahn claudecahn@gmail.com

2. Roma in Employment in Central and Southeastern Europe Part I. Results of 2005-2006 study carried out in 5 Countries in Central and Southeastern Europe (European Commission CAP Anti-Discrimination: European Roma Rights Centre, International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, European Roma Information Office) Part II: Two elements of the legal framework crucial for securing equality on the labour market.

3. Roma in Employment in Central and Southeastern Europe • Roma are 8 times more likely to be unemployed than non-Roma; • 61% of working age Roma in Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Hungary; Romania; Slovakia are out of work and of those 35% are long term unemployed; • 78% of working age Roma have experienced continuous unemployment of one year or more; and 1 in 3 have suffered continuous unemployment of five years or more; • Like most workers, and given the chance Roma will keep the same job for a considerable length of time. Almost 50% of working age Roma had periods of continuous employment lasting more than five years; and 78% had continuous employment lasting one year or more.

4. Have you ever applied for employment and not been successful because you are Roma? • Answer

5. How do you know you were refused because you are Roma? 11% 5% Told by the employer Just a feeling 49% Told by thelabour office other reasons 35% When asked, 49% said that they had been specifically told by the employer.

6. Roma in Employment in Central and Southeastern Europe • Unemployment is most often looked at as a supply side problem – blaming unemployment on the low levels of education, out of date work skills, regional disparities in job opportunities. Policy interventions are disproportionately clustered at remedying this aspect of the problem. • Often these very real barriers to employment are supplemented with prejudiced opinions about the Romani attitude to employment, reliability, trustworthiness, etc. Employment discrimination is a very real barrier to employment for many Roma; but it is a factor that is often overlooked by labour market policy-makers.

7. Where do Roma work? • The type of employment that Roma do is closely linked with their low levels of education often in menial jobs at the lower end of the labour market; • Research in CEE suggests that there has been a decline in the number of Roma in skilled occupations. This suggests that Roma in CEE are finding it difficult to find or retain places in skilled occupations; • Qualified Roma don’t get jobs in mainstream employment. Nor do they get the same employment opportunities or promotion prospects as non-Roma with the same qualifications. A Glass Box prevents progress into better quality higher paid jobs.

8. The actions of labour market gatekeepers make the problem worse. • Labour offices employees know and tolerate that certain employers do not hire Roma; • HR staff refuse Roma on sight – without trying to find out about work skills, past experience or qualifications; • Labour Office staff do not offer training opportunities to Roma as ‘it is a waste of time – they are better just doing public works’; • Public Authorities/Government bodies are frequently unwilling to lead by example.

9. The Barriers • Employment discrimination and the prejudice of many employers; • The behaviour of labour market gatekeepers; • Low skilled workers with low levels of formal educational qualifications and training; • Low or no capital base and limited access to credit for business start-up; and • Diminishing links with those in formal employment; • The intergenerational effects of long term unemployment; • Limited compliance or application of equality legislation.

10. Equality Law: Two Aspects • Sanctioning powers to punish discriminators: Act No. 365/2004 Coll. “On Equal treatment in certain fields and on protection against discrimination and on the amendment of certain acts” (“Anti-Discrimination Act”) • Innovative other approaches: The Northern Ireland Fair Employment Treatment Order

11. Anti-Discrimination Law Implementation: Slovakia “Since the beginning of 2005 the Centre dealt with 217 claims suggestive of discrimination and with 68 applications for the issuance of an expert opinion regarding the observance of the principle of equal treatment pursuant to the Anti-Discrimination Act. 27 persons requested the elaboration of a charge regarding the violation of the principle of equal treatment including representation before a court. According to feedback information received from claimants in 2005, 7 charges were lodged before the court claiming the compensation of non-property loss in connection with the violation of the principle of equal treatment; the date of the first hearing on this matter has not been set out yet. In one of the proceedings regarding the termination of employment in 2005 related to the violation of the principle of equal treatment, the opinion submitted by the Centre played the key role. The dispute ended in an out-of-court settlement including the compensation paid to the discriminated employee. In 2005 the Centre received around 28 notes (inwriting, by email, per telephone) from the clients stating that the persons contested (including mostly employers and service providers) refrained from the discriminative behaviour against them upon receipt of the written statement or expert opinion delivered by the Centre and that the relations between the two parties improved.” (Slovak Centre for Human Rights, “Report on the Observance of Human Rights in the Slovak Republic for the Year 2005”, Bratislava 2006)

12. Positive Model:Fair Employment and Treatment (NI) Order (FETO) Firms required by law to submit annual returns to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland showing the number of Catholics and Protestants and men and women in their workforce. If in the course of the monitoring process the firm discovers that they do not have a proportionate workforce, they must ensure that corrective steps are taken and they must draw up a programme of measures to achieve a balance in their workforce and a timetable to implement the measures. At least once every three years, firms must undertake a full review of the composition of their workforce. If such a review indicates that Catholics or Protestants are not enjoying, or are unlikely to continue to enjoy, fair participation in employment within their enterprise, the employer may voluntarily undertake “affirmative action”, or may be directed to do so by the Equality Commission. Under FETO If companies fail to meet statutory reporting and workforce monitoring requirements, or instructions to apply affirmative action sanctions can be placed on employers including exclusion from public authority contracts.

13. Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order (“FETO”) Positive measures permitted under the Fair Employment and Treatment Order include the following: • the encouragement of applications for employment or training from people in under-represented groups; • targeted training in a particular area or for a particular class of person; • the amendment of redundancy procedures to help achieve fair participation; and • the provision of training for non-employees of a particular religious belief, following approval by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland; • Underlying premise: employers must move toward a work force which relfects the ethnic/reigious diversity of the population at large.

14. What actions are needed? • Actions to tackle the problems in both the supply side and demand side of the labour market; • A strong and enforceable legislative framework that will ‘motivate’ employers to comply; • The public sector must lead by example – on all levels – employment practices, compliance, attitudes of employees; • Sophisticated employment and training projects – not the income transfer public works schemes that are used today. • Opportunities and incentives to participate in education for all ages.