ILO to launch major Comprehensive new report on Discrimination in the world of work

The report, entitled "Equality at work: Tackling the challenges" will be formally launched on 10 May at a high-level event in Brussels, Belgium by ILO Executive-Director Kari Tapiola, H.E. Peter Van Velthoven, the Belgian Labour Minister, Director-General Michael Van Der Pas of the European Commission on Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, and Manuela Tomei, the ILO expert who authored the report.

Other launch events will be organized in a number of venues around the world (final list to be announced).

The report highlights newly emerging forms of discrimination, such as unfair treatment in hiring of younger and older workers, people with disabilities, those living with HIV/AIDS, on the basis of sexual orientation, and others. The report also explores the new challenges stemming from the emergence of practices that penalize people with a genetic predisposition to developing certain diseases or who have lifestyle issues considered unhealthy, such as tobacco use and obesity.

The traditional forms of discrimination based on gender, age, race and social origin, affecting millions of people, remain stubbornly resistant to all efforts, including legal ones. The report concludes with a range of policy suggestions and offers a plan of action for achieving equality at work for all.

Four years ago, the ILO provided the first global report allowing a reliable assessment of the extent of discrimination in the workplace. It called upon Governments to take a more integrated approach to eliminating discrimination at work, which imposes large costs on the global economy in unrealized benefits. This year’s report will present a new global agenda building on lessons learned to achieve further progress in the elimination of discrimination is all its forms.

Launch details

The report and all associated media and information materials are under media embargo and not for publication, broadcast or quotation before 1200 GMT on Thursday, 10 May.

The report will be available to the media in hard copy and PDF format through ILO offices in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Beirut, Berlin, Brasilia, Geneva, Lima, London, Manila, Moscow, New York, Paris and Washington. An executive summary of the report will be available in Arabic, English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. A press release will be available as of Tuesday 8 May, under embargo as stated above.

Video material on discrimination in different regions of the world is available to broadcasters by contacting the Dept. of Communication, Radio & TV unit on [email protected].

Interviews can be scheduled via the ILO Department of Communication with discrimination and gender experts. Please contact the ILO by phone or fax or request a list of contacts by email.

For more information, please contact the ILO Department of Communications in Geneva at +41-22 799.7912. For Spanish-language information and contacts, please email [email protected].

__________

*/Equality at work: Tackling the challenges, Global Report under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, report to the International Labour Conference, 96th Session, 2007.