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Nondiscrimination
WORKPLACE CODE PROVISION: "No person will be subject to any discrimination in employment, including hiring, salary, benefits, advancement, discipline, termination or retirement, on the basis of gender, race, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, nationality, political opinion, or social or ethnic origin."
Click here to access FLA Benchmarks for this provision.
FLA Year Two IEM Findings - Nondiscrimination
* Please note that these findings represent the 1,595 incidences of separate noncompliance issues as found in 105 of the 110 factories subjected to IEMs in Year Two.
Click here for more about the way this data was collected.
Two percent of the total noncompliance issues reported in Year Two related to the FLA's Nondiscrimination provision. Almost half (43 percent) of Nondiscrimination noncompliance took place in Southeast Asia. Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) had relatively high noncompliance, representing 32 percent of reported Nondiscrimination noncompliance, followed by East Asia with 19 percent. Click here to access a breakdown of Year Two reported noncompliance issues tallied according to the Nondiscrimination benchmarks.
Most Nondiscrimination noncompliance related to pregnancy benchmarks, including pregnancy testing (23percent of all reported Nondiscrimination cases), pregnancy discrimination (14 percent), pregnancy risk (9 percent), and pregnancy accommodation (3 percent). There were no reports of dismissal due to pregnancy. Further explanation of these categories can be reviewed in the FLA Benchmarks.
Some monitors reported that factories had made verbal contracts with female workers when they were hired, clarifying that the workers were not allowed to get pregnant until after a pre-designated date. This was part of an attempt on the part of factories to avoid paying maternity leave and benefits, as is their legal responsibility in many countries. The monitoring reports also revealed many issues relating to discriminatory hiring practices. In some instances, monitors found job advertisements specifically targeting young women workers and discriminating against workers of other ages.
Several companies addressed discrimination issues by assisting factories in developing Nondiscrimination policies. In cases where pregnancy testing was used, several companies informed factories that this was a serious breech of the FLA Code and must stop immediately. One company also reviewed job advertisement texts to ensure that they did not contain discriminatory language, and, as a preventative measure, several companies included education about Nondiscrimination in various worker and management training programs.
Please click here to visit the tracking charts to review how various companies have worked to remediate these and other issues.
Link to:
FLA BENCHMARKS: NON-DISCRIMINATION
A. WORKPLACE CODE PROVISION: No person will be subject to any discrimination in employment, including hiring, salary, benefits, advancement, discipline, termination or retirement, on the basis of gender, race, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, nationality, political opinion, or social or ethnic origin.
B. Benchmarks
- Employment decisions will be made solely on the basis of education, training, demonstrated skills or abilities. All employment decisions will be subject to this provision. They include: hiring, job assignment, wages, bonuses, allowances, and other forms of compensation, promotion, discipline, assignment of work, termination of employment, provision of retirement.
- There shall be no differences in compensation and benefits attributable to gender.
- Employers will not prohibit the employment of married women.
- Employers will not use pregnancy tests or the use of contraception as a condition of hiring or of continued employment. Employers will not require pregnancy testing of female employees, except as required by national law.
- Information arising from pregnancy testing undertaken voluntarily will not be used as a factor in involuntarily reassigning, firing or making any other employment decision that disadvantages a pregnant woman.
- Reasonable accommodation will be made in the event of pregnancy, in a manner that will not unreasonably disadvantage the pregnant woman.
- Employers will not, on the basis of a woman's pregnancy, make decisions that result in dismissal, threat to dismiss, loss of seniority, or deduction of wages.
- Employers will ensure that pregnant women are not engaged in work that creates substantial risk to the health of the pregnant woman.
- Employers will ensure that women are not engaged in work that creates substantial risk to their reproductive health.
| Non Discrimination Benchmarks |
Number of Noncompliance Issues |
Percent of Total |
| Hiring Discrimination Practices |
15 |
43% |
| Sex discrimination |
0 |
0% |
| Marital Discrimination |
0 |
0% |
| Pregnancy Testing |
8 |
23% |
| Pregnancy Discrimination |
5 |
14% |
| Pregnancy Accommodation |
1 |
3% |
| Pregnancy Dismissal |
0 |
0% |
| Pregnancy Risk |
3 |
9% |
| Reproductive Health |
0 |
0% |
| Non discrimination Other |
3 |
9% |
| Total |
35 |
100 % |
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