In the United Kingdom, a test commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions found that people with minority ethnic or foreign-sounding names are one-third less likely to be shortlisted for jobs than people with “white”-sounding names (Wood and others 2009). Also in the United Kingdom, among those age 16 years old and older, almost all ethnic minority groups have a higher proportion of their male population unemployed than do their white counterparts (Sims 2012, 11). In the United States, the General Society Survey, a national probability survey representative of the U.S. population, reports that, between 2003 and 2008, 38 percent of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual people who were open about their sexual orientation in the workplace and 78 percent of transgender people experienced at least one form of discrimination, be it in hiring, promotion, or job retention (Sears and Mallory 2011). In Belgium in 2009, 45 percent of all employment discrimination complaints received by the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism were race related; of those, 36.5 percent concerned access to employment and 56.1 percent concerned conditions of work (ILO 2011a, 28).

The access to the labor market indicator identifies restrictions to accessing the job market, such as limitations to certain forms of discriminatory employment or hiring practices, and the existence of workplace protections for people belonging to ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities. The surveys revealed that all six pilot economies have constitutional provisions or national laws that prohibit discrimination in the workplace on ethnic and religious grounds.<sup>60</sup> In Bulgaria, Mexico, and the Netherlands, that prohibition also applies to sexual orientation,<sup>61</sup> and in Bulgaria, it also applies to gender identity. All of the pilot economies prescribe equal remuneration for work of equal value for individuals belonging to religious and ethnic minorities. The same applies to LGBTI communities in Bulgaria, Mexico, and the Netherlands.<sup>62</sup> The surveys also found that, in 2014, the government of the Netherlands passed a comprehensive action plan against labor market discrimination, targeting discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, race or ethnic origin, gender, and sexual orientation. The plan includes a wide range of measures, including the creation of the Labor Market Discrimination Team, which is charged with visiting companies to check on whether they have an effective antidiscrimination policy in place (Holtmaat 2016).

Even where nondiscriminatory labor laws exist, they will be effective only if the states ensure that no other barriers—such as high legal or administrative fees, lack of language interpreters, or other procedural hurdles—prevent or discourage minorities from lodging a claim for employment discrimination (see box 3). As stated by the United Nations Rule of Law Indicators’ report on access to justice, administrative hurdles and lack of transparent procedures can prevent a victim of discrimination from obtaining remedy.<sup>63</sup> The indicator for access to labor thus aims to assess the access to remedies for individuals who have been subject to employment discrimination and examines the ease of bringing a claim for employment discrimination on racial, religious, or sexual grounds in the public sector. Given the growing role of companies in the global economy, the indicator also assesses whether corporations have effective mechanisms for filing and addressing grievances from employees and communities that may be discriminated against by the companies’ operations. In that regard, the surveys revealed that all six economies have laws that allow an employee to bring a claim for employment discrimination on ethnic and religious grounds in both the private and public sectors. In Bulgaria, Mexico, and the Netherlands, that holds true also for claims of employment discrimination on sexual orientation and gender identity grounds (see table 4).

> 60 Bulgaria, Labor

> Code (1992), Art. 8, Para 3; Mexico, Federal Labor Law (1970), Articles 3, 133; Morocco, Labor Code (2011), Art. 9; the Netherlands, Equal Treatment Act (1994), Sec. 5(1); Tanzania, Employment and Labour Relations Act, (2004), Art. 7(4); Vietnam, Labor Code (2012), Art. 8.

> 61 Bulgaria, Labor Code (1992), Art. 8, Para 3; Mexico, Labor Law (1970), Articles 3, 133; the Netherlands, Equal Treatment Act (1994), Sec. 1(1)(b).

> 62 Protection Against Discrimination Act (2004), Art. 12, Para. 1 and Art. 4, Para. 1

> 63 The United Nations Rule of Law Indicators is a tool for assessing the rule of law in post-conflict situations. See UNOHCHR (2011).

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