Discrimination In Latvia

Introduction

Discrimination in the labor market is a phenomenon which nowadays is much extended. It can be defined as unequal capabilities of workers with equal productivity or unequal attitude of the employers, society and state. Employment discrimination can be exposed towards the individual employees as well as their specific groups. The discrimination problem in the working place can appear during the whole process of employment. The chosen theme ''Problem of discrimination in Latvia and legislations against it "is not well examined. Of course there are a lot of situations when the society must deal with this problem, but it is difficult to find out any statistical data about forms of discrimination or Latvia court cases concerning discrimination in employment. The aim of this paper is a short coverage of the discrimination in the relation of employment in the Republic of Latvia. Our task is to give some definition of discrimination concerning workforce and to attempt to consider various forms of discrimination and the causes of them. We will evaluate limitations of legislations and other initiatives against discrimination. The staff is considered to be a very important asset in Hospitality industry especially nowadays. That is why we will try to give some recommendation for managers in hospitality industry which will be based on our findings in research paper. .

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Discrimination definition, reasons and types

Discrimination in employment means a different and less favorable treatment to people because of their inherent characteristics which are not related to their merit or the requirements of this work. The reasons for discrimination can be gender, race, color, age, disability, religious belief or political opinion, national or social origin, property, or marital status, sexual orientation or other circumstances. Cannot be considered the discrimination issue the differences in treatment and compensation, if they are based on the difference in labor productivity. Some workers and some tasks are distinguished according to it performance. This basically happens due to the level of skills, qualifications and abilities. Discrimination can also be divided as direct and indirect. The direct discrimination states for discrimination where the treatment for one person on the basis of the prohibited criteria is less favorable than the treatment of another person in the similar situation The indirect discrimination states for discrimination where the employer treats all workers the same way without paying the attention to their race, religion, age etc, but the result of the treatment is that workers of a particular racial group are in a disadvantage. Discrimination can be also divided into the hidden and visible. The covert discrimination is taking place when the discriminated person or group of persons is not trying to protect their legitimate interests. This often happens in Latvia. Reasons for this can be very different. It can happen when the inobservance of the rights is not very significant or discriminated people do not want to spend time and money

but suffer from discrimination.

It is possible to identify the following types of employment discrimination: 1. Discrimination in wages of some workers or groups of workers compared with others. In the economy of any country staff with equal qualifications and experience, often receive 2|Page

different wages for performing the same work in the same industry or even the organization. The main examples are: women compared with men and natives compared with strangers 2. Discrimination in hiring and firing from work. Such discrimination, in addition to the before mentioned groups, usually includes people released from prison, the disabled, unskilled young people. They are usually taken to work at the latest time and are fired at the first time. At the same time unequal opportunities in employment may also arise in connection with the worker's age, race and ethnicity 3. Discrimination in terms of recruitment within the organization. Women, immigrants, ethnic minorities are more often suffering from such kind of discrimination 4. The segregation manifests in a stable division of professions and positions between the different groups of workers. Thus, there are traditional male and female professions. Occupational segregation is observed in the separation of occupations between local and non local workers.

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Legislation of discrimination in the Republic of Latvia

Discrimination is prohibited in Latvia for a long period of time and it is enshrined by the Latvian Law and in the document about International human right of Latvia. In the year 1998 the department about the basic human rights was added to the Latvian Constitution including the Article about the equality of the people.

Anti-discrimination legislation in Republic of Latvia Labor Legislation relationship is regulated by the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia, rules and regulations of international law, as well as the collective agreement and working regulations. The most detailed information about the prohibition of the discrimination at the workplace is described in the Labor legislation which came into force on the 1st of June 2002.

Prohibition of discrimination at the Labor Legislation Amendments to the Labor Legislation were made on the 7th of May. They included the definition of discrimination. As it is stated in the Labor legislation - “each person has equal rights for work, fair, safe and healthy working conditions, as well as fair wage”. The employer must ensure all these right without any discrimination regardless of the individuals: •

Family status;

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National or social origin;

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Religious, political or other beliefs;

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Sex;

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Race;

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Age; 4|Page

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Skin color or other circumstances. In the Labor Legislation is determined that the employer has to follow the principle of equal

treatment: •

During the trial day;

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Creating the employment relationship;

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Promotion;

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Setting working conditions;

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Payment of the salaries;

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Training. To promote the implementation of the principle of equal rights for disabled person, the

employer is obliged to make the necessary working conditions and to adapt the working environment, in order to give opportunities for disabled person to establish a working relationship, perform their tasks or be promoted for a higher position, which will not cause disproportionate burden for the employer.

Discrimination in job advertisement: •

Cannot be related only to men or women, except the situation when only a particular gender is able to perform the job;

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Prohibited to indicate age restrictions, except the situations when by law the person of certain age is not able to perform the job. On the 24th of July 1992 “Council of Ministers'' has taken a decision that prohibits "women

or the people under eighteen years to perform a hard work under the harmful working conditions.” Specific jobs are listed in which it is forbidden to employ women. In exceptional cases announcement may be restricted to one sex, if to the work are encouraged to apply, for example, actors or dancers, or advertising industry. 5|Page

Discrimination at the job interview: During the interview questions that do not apply to the performance of a specific job or are not related to the applicant's suitability for that job cannot be asked as soon as they can be considered as discriminating questions. For example future employee cannot be asked about his or her: •

National or ethnic origin;

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Previous convictions;

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Family or marital status;

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Pregnancy, except if the work cannot be performed during the period of pregnancy;

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Religious beliefs;

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Belonging to any political party, workers' union or other public organization.

Wages:

According to the Wages Act “the employer is obligated to provide the equal salary to men and women for equal work or work of equal value”.

Inobservance of principle of equal treatment:

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Labor Legislation states that an employee who has been discriminated or had any adverse consequences for the reason of infringement of the principle of equal treatment has the rights to ask for compensation for moral or resulting damages. For example, a man went for a job interview and due to this some additional expenses occurred such as travel expenses. But he was not hired solely because it is a women's team and in order not to disjoint a well-established team, he was not hired. He was told that they cannot take a man for work, though he has proven to be a better candidate for the vacant position than qualified women. Therefore this person has the rights to go to court and ask the establishment to cover his travel expenses or any additional costs that he has paid in order to attend the job interview. He can ask for compensation for moral damage as well.

Discrimination problems at the workplace The most common form of discrimination at the working environment: the information about the way employees are discriminated by their employers is very little or is vague. From the available information we have tried to identify the main forms of discrimination which are facing the employees. As a first source of information we have used Latvian Association of Personnel Management.

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As it shown in the survey done by the Latvian Association of Personnel Management, the most common forms of discrimination are based on disability, age, sex, health status and family situation. This data might not be objective because the number of respondents is small – only 41 questionnaire. Other statistics are not available or simply does not exist. The Country`s Labor Inspectorate affirm that the most common ways of discrimination are: age, disability and nationality. Age - women below retirement age. If the company is reducing the number of employees, the following group undergoes on the first place. Employers usually prefer younger workers, who have higher qualifications. For the consultations based on how and under what circumstances employers may terminate the contracts with disabled people. Disabled person is perceived as an unwanted employee. It is obvious that the discrimination against people with disabilities is a problem because the employers are trying to get rid of people with disabilities. As for sex discrimination more often are discriminated women. The biggest difference is between men and women wage scale. Latvian women earn on average 20% less than men. Comparison of wages between men and women, October 2008: •

34.2% of working women and 32.5% of men wages did not exceed LVL 200;

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54.3% of women and 50.6% of men wage was LVL 200.01 to 400.00;

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LVL 400.01 to 600.00 estimated 8.7% of women and 11.2% of men;

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Over LVL 600 - 2.8% of women and 5.7% of men. As you can see from the numbers, the higher is the salary the smaller amount of women is

receiving it. This is explained by the fact that the highest positions are taken by the men. Although there are many accepted conventions and laws, but in all the countries of the world there is a gap between men and women wages. Society has stereotypes about “women's” and “men`s” typical professions. For example, the job of the teacher is traditionally considered as a female. Summarizing all the information, it can be concluded that the most common forms of discrimination are related to age, gender (women are discriminated against the different parameters) 9|Page

and disability. Less discrimination is occurring because of the nationality, health and family situation, as well as political beliefs. Complaints about discrimination in the relation of employment Unfortunately, neither the Country Labor Inspectorate nor the Human Rights Bureau (HRB) don’t receive the detailed information about what types of discrimination complaints have been received and verbal advice from the employees' side during the operation of the Labor Law. Complaints and advice quantity is very minimal. A little more is provided the information about complaints where employees generally do not name the company in which they are working. We assume that workers are afraid to disclose the name because of the fear to lose their job. This suggests that workers are not sure if they are able to defend their rights.

Our recommendations 10 | P a g e

The Hospitality industry is a developing industry. That is why it is very essential for the hotel managers to take into consideration some issues about discrimination. According to our findings in the research paper we would like to give some recommendation to the managers in Hospitality industry in order to improve the working performance and avoid some problems. In order to avoid the discrimination in the working place the company culture must be clearly defined. The managers should find out and determine the shared values and practices of the employees. This will help to motivate and incorporate the employees. The managers must organize and provide Cross - cultural training. This will help in communication and will improve the relationship between the employees. Managers have to organize corporate evenings what will introduce people to each other and will give an opportunity to know each other better. The managers should encourage the people to defend their legitimate rights and should provide the easy access to information about how, where and in which cases the employees can defend their rights. As we could see from our research that the biggest problem for employers are the people with disabilities what means that there have to be more strict rules and regulations that are defending the right for equality with everyone else. That will stimulate the top managers to take those people to work. And the top managers have to consult the highest positions about providing the appropriate working conditions for people with disabilities.

Conclusion 11 | P a g e

The elimination of discrimination is an essential prerequisite to ensure that people are able to elect their professional path, develop their talents and abilities, and receive rewards in accordance with their merits and achievements. Discrimination leads to inequality in the labor market and the appearance of unfair advantage. A fair and honest character of labor relations promotes the selfesteem, motivation and morale of the worker. More productive and loyal workforce, combined with efficient administration promotes the growth of productivity and competitiveness of the enterprise. At the same time the discrimination creates stress, lowers morale and motivation and affects selfesteem and reinforces existing prejudices. Taking everything into consideration we consider that the elimination of discrimination in employment is a strategically important step which can help to create more democratic labor markets, reduce the risk of conflict, improve productivity and accelerate growth.

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References http://www.lu.lv/biblioteka/resursi/datubazes/aboneto-un-izmeginajuma-pieejas-datubazuizmantosana-arpus-lu-telpam/ http://www.lpva.lv/index.php/lv/certification/94/ http://www.humanrights.org.lv/upload_file/LCC_Diskriminacija_WEB.pdf http://www.humanrights.org.lv/upload_file/Parskats2004_en.pdf http://sutyajnik.ru/news/2009/04/1128.html http://www.humanrights.org.lv/upload_file/Diskriminacija_rus.pdf http://www.humanrights.org.lv/upload_file/Darba_diskriminacijas_buklets_RUS.pdf http://www.tiesibsargs.lv/lat/diskriminacijas_noversana/diskriminacijas_pamati/ http://lv.articlesnatch.com/Article/What-Is-Discrimination-In-The-Work-Place-/784361 http://www.humanrights.org.lv/upload_file/Nodarbinatiba_un_ienakumi_Latvija.pdf http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/11-26-2004-62160.asp (cross training) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/discrimination (terminology) http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/g/culture.htm (company culture)

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