Challenging Racism in the Workplace (CRAW)

Challenging Racism in the Workplace (CRAW)

Contract No: VS/2012/0240

Fieldwork transnational synthesis

2013

The Working Lives Research Institute

Leroi Henry, Steve Jefferys, Violeta Angelova, Philippe Archias, Virginie Bussat, Leena Kumarappan, Nouria Ouali and Fabio Perocco (please add others)

Supported by the European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

Table of Contents

Introduction 4

Funding 4

Methods and research activities 5

Informants 5

Central research questions 6

Interview schedule 6

Secondary data 7

Data analysis 7

Workshops 7

Characteristic of sectors studied 8

Belgium 8

Bulgaria 8

France 9

Italy 9

The UK 10

Comparability of data 11

Undeclared migrants 11

Discrimination in the workplace 12

Career progression 12

Skills not recognised 13

Violence, bullying and abuse 13

Holidays and religious observance 13

Disciplinary action 14

Segmentation and outsourcing 14

Inter-ethnic tensions 15

Equality in Bulgarian workplaces 15

The crisis, restructuring and equality 15

Conclusions 16

Employers policies on Equality and Diversity 18

Belgium 18

Bulgaria 18

France 19

Italy 20

UK 20

Union activities around race equality and diversity 22

Equality structures 22

Union policies including engagement with diversity policies 23

Union activities and practices around discrimination 23

Campaigning 24

Training and materials 24

Diversity plans and social dialogue 24

Casework 25

Gate keepers 26

Bulgaria 26

Recruitment and representation of minorities 26

Conclusions and overarching themes 29

Ethnic monitoring 29

The rise of diversity discourses 30

Multiculturalism, republicanism and neutrality 31

Race and other identities and collective action in unions 32

Introduction

Across Europe the population is becoming increasingly ethnically diverse with migration from both within and outside the European Union transforming the ethnic composition of workplaces. The workplace, historically the key site for identity formation and consciousness is becoming recast as the primary site for interaction between people of different ethnicities, national origins and nationalities. This raises questions of the extent to which ethnic social integration and social mobility are facilitated by activities that take place in the workplace. Indeed it also illustrates the ways in which the meanings of these terms are contested within countries, sectors and organisations. The project spans five countries with very different histories and approaches to promoting equality and differing systems of industrial relations to understand in what ways unions and others challenge racism in the workplace.

The report synthesises the key findings of fieldwork research undertaken for the Challenging racism in the workplace project (CRAW) in five countries. It analyses differences in approaches to race, racism and industrial relations through exploring the role of Trades Unions in addressing racism inside and outside the workplace. CRAW builds on a previous project, RITU, which addressed these issues during 2003-5. The project focuses on the decade leading up to 2013 with a particular emphasis on events and processes that have taken place since the crisis of 2008.

The research consortium for the CRAW project consisted of:

·  METICES Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Belgium

·  International Centre for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations (IMIR) in Bulgaria

·  Association Travail, Emploi, Europe, Société (ASTREES) in France

·  Laboratory of research on immigration and social transformations, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia (UniVE) in Italy

·  The Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University (WLRI) in the UK

Funding

The project was supported by the European Commission Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. Each participating institution made a contribution towards the overall cost of the project, in total equivalent to 20% of the projected costs

Methods and research activities

The five European partners agreed a common approach to undertaking the case studies. Selection criteria for the case studies were based on prioritising replicating the sectors and as far as possible the informants from the 2003-2005 RITU project that four of the five partners participated in.

Belgium / METICES / Health / Retailing / Urban Transport
Bulgaria / IMIR / Health / Textiles / Urban Transport
France / ASTREES / Health / Retailing / Urban Transport
Italy / UniVE / Shipbuilding / Construction / Metal working
UK / WLRI / Health / Post / Urban Transport

Informants

Each case study included at least five interviewees who were identified through contacts with trades unions with a particular aim of engaging with informants from the RITU project. Overall we conducted over 90 interviews.

The aim of our sampling strategy was to capture the views of union officials at senior and national levels, union officials at regional and branch level and also individual minority and migrant workers. Thus informants included:

·  National level union officials such as presidents and deputy presidents, this was particularly the case where there were no office holders with direct responsibility for supporting minority and migrant workers.

·  When appropriate and relevant we focused on officials with responsibility for overall union policy around equality, diversity and migrant workers. This included informants such as union and sectoral Equalities Officers, Diversity Officers, Organising Officers and Policy Officers.

·  To explore how equalities policies played out at the grassroots we sought a range of informants with experience at individual workplaces such as:

·  Leaders of local branches or other local officeholders.

·  Local and national minority[1] activists including leaders and activists in local and national minority or migrant workers organisations and networks affiliated to the unions

·  To further triangulate the data and collect evidence from those not necessarily active in unions we interviewed minority and migrant workers in each of the three sectors in each country.

Central research questions

To address the research objectives the international partners developed key research questions

1.  What are the characteristics of the three sectors and their workforces?

2.  What is the prevalence of racism in the sector and how has it changed since the crisis

3.  What structures do the unions have in place to challenge racism in the workplace

4.  What challenges do the unions face in addressing racism

5.  What do these processes reveal about how racism is understood in different countries

Interview schedule

To address these research questions common topic guides for semi structured interviews were developed by the partners. Different guides were developed for the various categories of informant including:

·  National Official,

·  Local Official

·  BME activist

·  BME worker.

These topic guides had the flexibility to be adapted to particular national and organisational contexts and provided scope for interviewees to engage with the stated concerns of the informants. The interview topics included:

·  Characteristics of each of the three sectors

·  Sector economic and social contexts – with brief histories – public/private sector

·  Sector workforce breakdown – ethnicity - gender – part/full time – working hours – salary movements compared with national averages – changes over time in recruitment

·  Sector trade unions National structures covering sector

·  National and local structures addressing diversity, race and equality with brief history positions

·  National union policy and practices on racism and xenophobia covering sector.

·  National and local collective agreements around racism

·  Local sector union policy and practice on racism and xenophobia covering case study

·  The role of unions in opposing and/or tolerating Racism and Xenophobia in case study including from fellow workers, management / supervisors trade unionists,

·  Definitions of racism used by unions officially and unofficially.

·  How race relates to other identities (nationality, religion, gender, class, sexuality etc.)

·  Ideas / hopes for future and the limits of challenging racism

·  Policy recommendations to improve trade union practice

Secondary data

To supplement the interviews we collected a range of secondary data related to the unions activities in promoting ethnic equality and or diversity. These documents included union policies, minutes of meetings, resolutions, details of ethnic monitoring exercises, training materials and collective agreements.

Data analysis

All interviews were undertaken in national languages recorded and transcribed verbatim. The interviewers also made extensive field notes and each national research team reviewed the interview transcripts and field-notes in order to draw out key themes.

Workshops

The key emerging themes and draft reports were discussed with National Advisory Groups of experts including trades unionists with responsibility for equality and diversity, anti-racist voluntary groups and academics. These groups then attended an international conference in Paris in July 2013. The national reports were amended in the lights of these discussions and this synthesis draws heavily on discussions developed during the Paris conference.

Characteristic of sectors studied

This section gives a brief overview of the sectors studied in the case studies giving where possible their size, structure, the impact of the crisis and the demographics of the workforce.

Belgium

The Brussels company of transports (Société de Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles - STIB) is the largest employer in the Brussels region employing around 7000 workers. It is currently experiencing a severe labour shortage. Despite efforts to diversify the workforce the national and gender composition of the workforce have changed little since 2002. In 2012 9% of the personnel were women and 10% were foreign nationals from 28 different nationalities (7% were originating from a EU member state and 3% of a non EU country) when Belgian born minorities are included the figure rises to 38% of the workforce. Since 2002 many foreign employees have been naturalized. The minorities tend to work in manual posts and as drivers.

The public hospital system in Brussels has undergone radical restructuring since 2004 with many mergers, however it is not clear what impact this had on employment numbers. Many parts of the health sector are experiencing acute labour shortages leading to the recruitment of migrant nurses and doctors. Many North Africans were recruited to fill manual and cleaning posts. There are no statistics collected, however, estimates based on workers names suggest that around 25-30% of hospital staff are from minorities.

In Brussels, the retail trade represents 59,000 jobs (48,000 salaried and 11,000 independent) in 9,871 retail outlets with employment levels increasing since the crisis. Around 12.5% of employees are migrants. In 2010 the case study, Carrefour carried out major restructuring losing 10% of jobs on top of another 20% that had been lost in the previous 6 years. The non-Belgian workforce has remained constant at 6% over the last 10 years however there are no figures on the overall ethnic minority workforce.

Bulgaria

Textiles has undergone high levels of restructuring due to post soviet transition and increased globalisation and high levels of foreign investment. Although the textile sector is predominantly small and micro enterprises the case study was based in one of the largest enterprises. The sector was badly affected by the crisis but is now recovering. However the workforce reduced from 130,000 to around 100,000 in 2012. It is based on low and often delayed wages, long hours and is overwhelmingly female (88%). The workforce is highly ethnically mixed with large numbers of indigenous minorities such as Roma, Muslim and Turkish workers however no statistics have been collected on ethnicity of the workforce. However there are high levels of minority employment particularly as many factories are located in minority areas.

The Bulgarian health system has experienced a high degree of restructuring with little social dialogue however the crisis is yet to impact on sallies and staffing levels with around 100, 00 workers continuing to be employed in the sector. The workforce is highly feminised at around 80% and has a high proportion of older workers particularly in the professions due to high levels of migration by younger workers. There are high numbers of minorities employed in this sector with most being located in the least attractive and menial jobs although there are substantial numbers of overseas doctors. However no records of ethnic minority participation in the labour marker are kept.

The Bulgarian urban transport system employs around 150,000 workers with 70% being male. The sector has very low wages although it was not affected greatly by the crisis. There are no statistics on the numbers of minorities employed in the sector.

France

Public Assistance - Paris Hospitals (AP-HP) employ around 90,000 people (70,000 non-clinical and 20,000 clinical) over 37 hospitals in the Paris region. The two hospitals under study are located in an area with around 20% immigrant population. The sector is experiencing a labour shortage which has led to recruiting overseas health professionals. There are no statistics collected on the ethnic composition of the workforce at a national or local level however the numbers of overseas trained doctors is recorded suggesting that they make up around 25% of the medical labour force. Anecdotally there appear to be many migrants clustered in the lower status occupations in the hospitals.

The Casino Group is based on a network of 12.000 stores (hypermarkets, supermarkets, discount stores and convenience shops) that are established in eight different countries including 9, 450 in France. The Group’s stores tend to be in areas with high ‘immigrant’ populations as 60% of its hypermarkets and 40% of its supermarkets are located in underprivileged neighbourhoods called “sensitive areas”. A central strategy is to develop a local market by adapting to the local environment and to the local population, hence it has a high number of minority employees. Whilst there are no clear statistics on the ethnic composition of the workforce, with support from the EU Casino was one of the first French companies to attempt to measure the ethnic and racial diversity of its workforce by undertaking an experimental study of employee names on 4 sites (hypermarket, supermarket, Cafeteria, warehouse).

RATP is the fifth largest public transport provider in the world serving 9 million people daily in Paris and the Ile de France region. It employs 42,500 workers, mainly drivers. It has a union density of 18% and a long tradition of social dialogue. There are no statistics on the ethnic composition of the workforce however the company is attempting to ensure that its workforce reflects the areas it serves and has been recruiting in the ‘sensitive areas’ and therefore employs high numbers of minority ethnic and migrant drivers.

Italy

Metal working in Italy employs around 1.8m workers who are overwhelmingly male and work in small and medium enterprises. Union density is around 34%. Metal working has been in long term decline a process intensified by the crisis where around 30% of metal working production was lost. Overall within metal working sector pay is higher than average but this masks important disparities around gender and for precarious categories of worker. Immigrants make up around 3.8% of the workforce but are concentrated in very small firms. The case study selected is somewhat atypical as it has a relatively high level of immigrant workers