Law provides regulation of special measures concerning ethnicity/race
| Quick info | |
|---|---|
| Data type | Numeric |
| Scale | Metric |
| Value labels | Not applicable in the strict sense since the scale is quasi-metric, but for coding the following values were used for orientation: Original template:
Revised template:
Scope for further gradations between 0 and 1 to reflect changes in the strength of the law. |
| Technical name | labor_posdis_ethn |
| Category | Labour and labour market |
| Label | Law provides regulation of special measures concerning ethnicity/race |
| Related indicators |
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Measures the presence and strength of regulation to enable and mandate the active equalisation of historically racially or ethnically disadvantaged groups.
The discrimination of people of other skin colours and ascribed ‘races’, which developed historically in the context of slavery and servitude, particularly in connection with the introduction of capitalist structures in Europe and the Americas, has resulted in persistent socio-economic inequality in many parts of the world, including corresponding disadvantages in labour markets. To counteract the perpetuation of these socially embedded structures of inequality, a wide range of special measures is also used here.
As early as 1996, the ILO defined special measures as follows: ‘These programmes of corrective measures are, in most cases, well defined and multi-faceted: whether they are presented as positive discrimination programmes in favour of certain categories of specially disadvantaged workers, or as practical activities, in particular in the area of training and education, or in the form of some other pragmatic solution, they are an offshoot of the realisation that the prohibition of discrimination is not enough to make it disappear in practice, even if the prescriptive mechanisms are applied correctly.’
The ascribed ‘race’, ethnicity or national origin is not the only factor that can make it more difficult for ethnic, national or racially disadvantaged minorities to access and remain in the labour market. In many cases, these characteristics interact with other factors such as social class, gender, disability, sexual orientation or other factors. These factors can have an additive effect, but they can also be inextricably linked (intersectional discrimination). The strength of legal regulations for active equality can therefore be seen from whether only simple equality measures such as special measures for care responsibilities are prescribed, or whether more complex measures such as preferential treatment up to the targeted active combating of multiple, including intersectional, discrimination are prescribed by law. With this variable, it is important to pay close attention to whether ‘race’ and/or ethnic and/or national origin are explicitly listed in the law.
The characteristics of racial discrimination and targeted measures against it are discussed in detail in the ILO General Survey on Equality in Employment and Occupation of 1996, with country examples provided.
Coding rules
The WoL is a leximetric dataset on individual employment protection. It quantifies the strength of the standard-setting, privileging, and equalising function of individual labour law (see Dingeldey et al. 2022). The scale ranges from "0" to "1" where "0" corresponds to the absence of a law prescribing special measures to overcome ethnic/racial discrimination in employment, "0,5" corresponds to the explicit legal possibility to introduce special measures, and "1" to the legal prescription of such special measures. Coding instructions and description of indicators are laid down in a technical paper (Fechner/Carlino, forthcoming). For country-specific information see WoL documentation (forthcoming).
Bibliographic info
Citation: Irene Dingeldey, Heiner Fechner, Jean-Yves Gerlitz, Jenny Hahs, Ulrich Mückenberger, Worlds of Labour: Introducing the Standard-Setting, Privileging and Equalising Typology as a Measure of Legal Segmentation in Labour Law, Industrial Law Journal, Volume 51, Issue 3, September 2022, Pages 560–597, https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwab016
Related publications:- Mückenberger, Ulrich, 1985. "Die Krise des Normalarbeitsverhältnisses - Hat das Arbeitsrecht noch Zukunft?" Zeitschrift für Sozialreform 31: 415-434; 457-475
- Mückenberger, Ulrich, and Simon Deakin. 1989. "From Deregulation to a European Floor of Rights: Labour Law, Flexibilisation and the European Single Market." Zeitschrift Für Ausländisches Und Internationales Arbeits- Und Sozialrecht 3: 153–207.
- Carlino, M., Fechner, H., & Schäfer, A. (2024). Using leximetrics for coding legal segmentation in employment law: The development and potential of the Worlds of Labour database. In I. Dingeldey, H. Fechner, & U. Mückenberger (Eds.), Constructing Worlds of Labour. Coverage and Generosity of Labour Law as Outcomes of Regulatory Social Policy. Palgrave Macmillan.
Misc
Project manager(s):
Responsible for data coding: Heiner Fechner (2018-2025)
Responsible for data editing and entry: Heiner Fechner (2024-2025), Andrea Schäfer (2021-2025), Jean-Yves Gerlitz (2018-2020)
Principal Investigators: Irene Dingeldey, Ulrich Mückenberger
Student assistants (2018-2025): Julia Bode, Jessica Bonn, Daniel Euler, Maxime Fischer, Jan-Christopher Floren, Jennifer Götte, Désirée Hoppe, Irina Kyburz, Alexandra Kojnow, Tarek Mahmalat, Karolin Meyer, Johanna Nold, Tanusha Pali, Johannes Ramsauer, Max Sudhoff, Kristina Walter, Caroline Zambiasi.
- Version 0.001: Initial release
Revisions: The template has been revised in 2024, but coding for the completion of the revised dataset is still ongoing; values in WeSIS Version 0.001 correspond to the original template. The revision concerns primarily wording (no fundamental change in content), and furthermore the introduction of finer differentiations.
Sources
Own coding.
