Integration in the workplace is the key to challenging racism, writes Niall Crowley.
This is Anti-Racist Workplace Week. The week, which lasts until November 14th, is a time of leadership on the issue of cultural diversity from key social partner organisations - the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, employers' group Ibec, the Small Firms Association, Chambers Ireland, the Construction Industry Federation and the Irish Farmers' Association.
The week provides an opportunity to take practical action to promote equality, take account of diversity and prevent discrimination within culturally diverse workforces.
Anti-Racist Workplace Week places the workplace at the heart of society's response to growing cultural diversity. The workplace becomes a beacon, establishing the way forward for this new, culturally diverse Ireland. It is in the context of this central role that we have identified "Creating the Integrated Workplace" as the theme for the week.
Integration has been put forward by politicians, policy makers, academics and non-governmental organisations, among others, as a priority response to cultural diversity in society. However, integration is a concept with a troubled history.
Integration became a code for assimilation when it informed a policy response across government departments to the Traveller community from the 1960s. Integration involved a strategy to absorb the Traveller community into the larger settled community through the provision of education and housing, as set out in the 1963 report of the Commission on Itinerancy.
The failure of this strategy to improve the situation of the Travellers led to a new understanding among policy makers of integration in the 1980s. Integration was defined in the 1985 report of the Travelling People Review Body as a matter of individual choice. Individual Travellers could choose to integrate or to be different. However, policy and service provision by government departments did not encourage being different.
Both of these understandings of integration are problematic for minority ethnic people. They diminish the centrality of culture and identity for the individual. They undermine the status and standing of the culture and identity shared by the group.
These understandings of integration are also problematic for the majority ethnic group. They deny the potential enrichment of society from the cultural diversity of its population. A dominant set of norms is imposed and there is no allowance for evolution of the norms by which we develop as a society.
The theme of "Creating the Integrated Workplace" suggests a different understanding of integration. This is an integration where different cultures and identities are valued as a resource.
Integration is posed as a tripartite challenge. There is a challenge to black and minority ethnic (including Traveller) employees to adapt to the demands of the workplace. There is a challenge to all employees to adapt to and engage effectively with a culturally diverse workforce. Finally, there is a challenge to adapt the workplace itself so that policies and practices take into account the implications of diversity.
The organisations involved in Anti-Racist Workplace Week have identified initiatives that could be developed by enterprises and which should provide the foundation for integrated workplaces.
Induction training is identified as a key activity in supporting minority ethnic employees to adapt to the workplace. This training enables these employees to have an understanding of the workplace and their role within it. It should have a particular focus on assisting migrant workers to settle in.
Equality and diversity training is identified as a key activity in supporting all employees to create a workplace that is characterised by equality and a welcoming of cultural diversity.
Policies and procedures in relation to discrimination, sexual harassment and harassment also play an important role in supporting all employees to adapt to diversity. Employers could be held liable in cases under the equality legislation in the absence of such policies.
Flexible working arrangements can facilitate minority ethnic employees in meeting cultural and religious needs and obligations.
The Labour Court has ruled that to apply the same procedural standards to a migrant worker as would be applied to an Irish worker in disciplinary proceedings could amount to the application of the same rules to different situations and could therefore amount to discrimination.
It is therefore important to review employment policies and procedures to ensure that they take account of cultural and linguistic diversity.
An integrated workplace is good for business. It builds employee well-being and therefore commitment to the organisation. It contributes to a positive working environment for all employees, which enhances productivity. It stimulates a positive profile for the organisation among a culturally diverse customer base, which improves customer satisfaction. It enables the organisation to learn from the diversity of perspectives brought forward by different ethnic groups.
There should be no room for discrimination in the integrated workplace. This is an important challenge, given that the Central Statistics Office 2005 special survey on equality highlights significant levels of discrimination. It found that 12.5 per cent of the population aged 18 and over had experienced discrimination within the past two years. The highest rate of discrimination was found on the grounds of race. Gender and race were the most frequently cited grounds in relation to workplace discrimination.
It is valuable that Anti-Racist Workplace Week is a key element of the National Action Plan Against Racism. The plan places the week in a wider context, with its overall aim to provide strategic direction to combat racism and to develop a more inclusive intercultural society. It includes a commitment to make the principles established in Anti-Racist Workplace Week become policy. In this way, the goal of an integrated workplace should find wider stimulus and support.
Niall Crowley is chief executive of the Equality Authority