Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2000, published 89th ILC session (2001)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Spain (Ratification: 1967)

1.  The Committee notes the communication presented by the General Workers’ Union (UGT) dated 20 January 2000. It also notes the communication of the Democratic Confederation of Labour (CDT) of Morocco, dated 29 February 2000. The Committee notes the Government’s reply, dated 20 September 2000, to the CDT’s communication. The Committee will address only those issues relevant to the application of Convention No. 111 in this comment.

2.  Discrimination on the basis of sex.  The UGT’s comments indicate that, while the situation of women in the Spanish labour market has improved, women are still disadvantaged, particularly in respect of access to employment and equality of remuneration. The Committee invites the Government to submit any response it may deem appropriate to the UGT’s comments, which the Committee will examine at its next session.

3.  Discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion and national extraction.  The CDT communication describes the events that took place during the month of February 2000 in El Ejido (Province of Almería, in the autonomous region of Andalusia), in which Moroccan workers residing in the region were attacked and beaten. The communication states that most of these workers are employed in the agricultural sector, working in greenhouses where the temperature may reach up to 50 degrees Celsius and where their exposure to pesticides leaves them with pulmonary and skin diseases. In general, the Moroccan workers in this region are neither insured nor do they have work papers, and they can be found residing in ghettos, living in makeshift cardboard or plastic shelters. The injuries suffered by this group of workers and their living and working conditions as described in the CDT’s comments, as well as the Government’s reply to those comments, are set forth in detail in the Committee’s comments on the Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97).

4.  The Committee notes that, following the events that took place in El Ejido, representatives of immigrant associations, employers’ and workers’ organizations signed an Agreement on 12 February 2000, according to which the central Government, the autonomous government of Andalusia, and the employers’ and workers’ organizations undertook to take certain steps to, among other things, re-house and compensate the workers injured due to the events described, launch a programme for the construction of low-cost housing, regularize those workers that were undeclared and without working papers, establish information centres to provide assistance to foreign workers, develop intercultural programmes designed to promote the social integration of the immigrants, and create a permanent committee, composed of the parties to the Agreement, to monitor the execution of the measures agreed upon.

5.  In its reply to the CDT communication, the Government indicates that, at a meeting on 10 April 2000, the permanent committee found that the Agreement had been complied with overall, although it acknowledged that certain measures still remained to be implemented. Thus, the committee was dissolved by consensus, and the Board for the Social Integration of Immigrants in Almería was charged with the task of ensuring that those steps still not implemented were in fact carried out. The Government lists the measures taken in compliance with the Agreement, including finding housing for those workers whose housing was destroyed, payment of compensation for damages sustained, the regularization of most of the migrant workers from Morocco or elsewhere, the effective application of the collective agreement for the agricultural sector, and the investigation by the authorities of the events that took place in El Ejido.

6.  The Committee expresses its concern with regard to the events described. It considers that these events, to the extent that they have an impact on employment and occupation opportunities and conditions of work, involve acts of discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion and national extraction as covered by the Convention. The Committee recalls that appropriate national legislation that is in conformity with the Convention is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for the effective application of the principles of the Convention. Recalling furthermore that the prohibition of discrimination is not enough to eliminate it in practice, the Committee notes that the effective struggle against discrimination in employment and occupation may take the form of measures such as affirmative action programmes, public awareness-raising campaigns, the establishment of relevant institutional bodies with promotional, advisory or monitoring functions and, in accordance with Article 2 of the Convention, the formulation of a national policy declared and applied with the aim of eliminating discrimination based on all of the grounds prohibited by the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to supply information on all measures adopted to guarantee equality of opportunity and treatment to workers of foreign extraction, including Moroccans, in respect of access to employment and occupation, vocational training and conditions of employment, as well as to promote the practical application of the principle of non-discrimination. The Government is also requested to supply information on all measures taken to raise public awareness of the problem of discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion and national extraction and to promote the integration of Moroccan workers and workers of other minorities and ethnic groups in Spanish society and economic life.