Race

Congress Guidelines

Congress Guidelines on combatting racism and promoting interculturalism

SIPTU Polish Website

Integrated Workplaces

An Action Strategy to support Integrated Workplaces is a social partner initiative organised by representatives of Congress, IBEC, the Small Firms Association, the Construction Industry Federation, Chambers Ireland, the Office of the Minister for Integration and the Equality Authority. Funding for this strategy has been provided by the Office of the Minister for Integration and the Equality Authority.

A Strategy to Assist You:

to manage a culturally diverse workplace,
to contribute to and develop an integrated workplace.

Tackling Race Inequalities - A TUC Response

This doucument is a response to a Government consultation document 'Tackling Race Inequalities' which seeks the views of organisations on what should be in a future Government wide race equality strategy.

Number of non-Irish nationals in the labour force declines by almost 30,000

According to (page 4) the latest (June 09) quarterly national household survey, there were an estimated 462,300 non-Irish nationals aged 15 years and over in the State in the first quarter of 2009, a decrease of 20,800 or 4.3%.This compares with an increase of 55,200 or 12.9% in the first quarter of 2008. The estimated number of non-Irish nationals in the labour force was 336,400, a decrease of 29,700 over the year. An increase of 38,000 had been recorded in the year to Q12008. The ESRI has now 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 such as that experienced by the Romanian community in the North last week. Read more about the labour market and recession

Issues and challenges in recruitment and selection of migrant workers

New research entitled "Issues and Challenges in the Recruitment and Selection of Immigrant Workers in Ireland" has been published by the Public Appointments Service. The report takes into account the experiences of job seekers from a range of minority ethnic groups, examines their experiences of seeking employment in Ireland and identifies particular challenges/barriers that they have encountered, including a lack of information in relation to the job search process, a perceived preference amongst employers for Irish experience and references and difficulties in demonstrating equivalence of qualifications. The report also highlighted the different views that immigrant job seekers and employers often had in relation to the selection process and the extent to which it was open and fair. The report has been welcomed by the Office of the Minister for Integration

New website of the Office of the Minister for Integration

Minister John Curran, T.D., today (June 25th) launched the website of the Office of the Minister for Integration. The website will highlight the work of the Office and inform migrants and interested stakeholders of developments in integration and diversity management taking place at a national and international level. It will also provide information on European and national funding streams managed by the Office, provide links to relevant national and international websites and be a key source of information for migrants.The launch coincides with the recent launch of the European Web Site on Integration by the European Commission. This website has a documentary library, "best practice" content, country information on integration of Third Country Nationals from across Europe, and will build an online community of integration practitioners.

Free movement of workers in an enlarged EU

On the occasion of the enlargement of 1 May 2004, Ireland opened its labour market to workers from the 10 new accession states. 12 of 15 'old' Member States introduced transitional measures. Before 1 May 2009 the Council will have to review the functioning of the transitional provisions on the basis of a Commission report. This report was published in November 2008. In the meantime, the situation has considerably changed. Not only have Romania and Bulgaria entered the EU, with separate timetables for possible transitional measures. Also, a financial and economic crisis of almost unprecedented scope is sweeping over the world, and does not leave the EU and its expanding internal market and labour markets untouched. See the Resolution adopted by the Steering Committee of the ETUC Brussels, 28 April 2009

Back in February 2009, pictures of strikers at the Lindsey oil refinery carrying placards saying 'British Jobs for British Workers' attracted media interest across Europe. What were the real issues raised by the disput?. The sense of helplessness workers feel when faced with a global recession; ending the unfairness of the Posted Workers Directive; and tackling the inequities of the contracting system, so that contracting work out isn't simply an exercise in reducing workers' pay and conditions. Read more in an article by Greg Thomson, UNISON

ESRI Research into racial discrimination in recruitment

ESRI research, commissioned by the Equality Authority, has 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. The experiment was carried out between March and October 2008. Compared with similar experiments carried out in other countries, the level of discrimination recorded for Ireland is high.

Immigrants at Work

Immigrants at Work' (2008) by 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. It investigates both objective labour market outcomes such as occupational status and wages, and respondents own subjective assessment of their experiences. It makes use of the first and, apart from the 2006 Census, only representative Irish data sources to include information on ethnicity - the special module of the Quarterly National Household Survey conducted by the Central Statistics Office in 2004 and the ESRI Survey of Migrant Experiences of Racism and Discrimination in Ireland in 2005.

IMI Bizlab on Cultural Diversity

The IMI Cultural Diversity Bizlab is a learning network of HR practitioners, researchers and educators. It has brought together a dynamic and proactive group of people who have been meeting regularly to exchange experiences and explore the challenges and opportunities presented by a culturally diverse workforce.

European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey (EU-MIDIS) - survey results (22/04/2009)

While the composition of Member States' populations is becoming increasingly diverse, Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) reports have consistently shown that there is a lack of data on ethnic minorities in many countries. Therefore, the FRA conducted a major representative survey (executed by GALLUP), interviewing selected ethnic minority and immigrant groups in all of the 27 Member States of the EU. The survey examined experiences of discriminatory treatment, racist crime, victimisation, awareness of rights, and reporting of complaints. This is the first ever EU-wide survey of ethnic minority and immigrant groups' experiences of discrimination and victimisation in everyday life.

Work Permits

Congress submission on the work permit scheme

Durban Review Conference

The Durban Review Conference was held in Geneva from 20 - 24th of April 2009.

Trade Unions were well represented at the conference and issued a statement in advance. See also Decent Work has no Colour statement by ITUC and Global Unions

Representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the Minister for Integration actively participated in the Conference and H.E. Mr. Daithi O' Ceallagh, Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations, Geneva, delivered a national statement.. The Conference itself did not pass without some controversy. However, notwithstanding the incident surrounding the statement of the Iranian President on the first day, the Conference was deemed a success with a relatively strong consensual final document adopted. Calling the successful result "a platform for a new beginning," High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, in her final statement urged all to implement vigorously the outcome document. The High Commissioner also stated that the focus is now on implementation. The Office of the Minister for Integration is examining this outcome document and will be in contact in due course with relevant civil society actors to discuss next steps.

AKIDWA

Akidwa (Akina Dada wa Africa - AkiDwA; Swahili for sisterhood) is an authoritative, minority ethnic-led national network of African and migrant women living in Ireland. The non-governmental organisation with charitable status was established in August 2001 by a group of African women to address the needs of an expanding population of African and migrant women resident in Ireland. The organisation is a recognised authoritative and representative body for migrant women, irrespective of their national/ethnic background, tradition, religious beliefs, socio-economic or legal status. AkiDwA's advocacy approach is based on a gender perspective and the organisation promotes an equal society, free of racism, discrimination and stereotyping. AkiDwA's advocacy approach is based on strengthening migrant women's voice, applying a gender perspective to policies and practices and the promotion of equality of migrant women in Irish society, free of gender and racial stereotyping.

NCCRI

Congress greatly regrets the short sighted decision by government to close the NCCRI down last year.