Keeping tabs on smokers at work may be discrimination

GENEVA – Smokers may face discrimination in the workplace because of measures that employers introduce in an attempt to improve public health, the International Labour Organisation warned yesterday.

The focus on employees’ lifestyles is just one way in which discrimination continues to evolve, alongside gender and even genetic screening to see whether people have a predisposition to a particular disease, the ILO said in its latest report on workplace equality. The ILO said such practices “raise important questions about where to draw the line between employers’ control over what employees do outside the workplace, and people’s freedom to lead the life they choose.”The report highlighted the Geneva-based World Health Organisation as one example, after the UN agency announced in December 2005 that it would no longer hire smokers unless they promised to kick the habit, even in their private lives.The ILO said this would be a form of discrimination, unless smoking directly impedes an individual’s ability to do his or her job.”This is not a measure we would recommend…it is not permitted to base discrimination on grounds unrelated to job performance,” ILO official Lee Swepson told journalists.The ILO did concede though that “curbing tobacco consumption or reducing cholesterol levels or obesity are all desirable and legitimate public health policies.”On the issue of screening, the agency cited an example of three men in Hong Kong who were awarded damages in court, after being denied employment by the government because their parents were affected by schizophrenia.”Genetic testing may easily lead to unjustified dismissal or denial of employment,” it warned in its report, “Equality at work: Tackling the challenges.”Women remain the most discriminated group in the global workforce, with pay and participation rates still lagging behind men across all sectors of the economy, the report said.Whilst most of the ILO’s 180 members have ratified its two core conventions on discrimination, there remains a big gap between the statute books and the actual situation in the workplace, the report said.”When it comes to our struggle with discrimination in the world today, we see some progress but still considerable hills and mountains ahead of us,” ILO official Zafar Shaheed said.Worldwide, female labour participation rates have continued to rise.Some 56,6 per cent of women of working age worldwide are economically active, according to the ILO.Wide regional disparities remain however, with rates ranging from 71,1 per cent in North America, to just 32 per cent in the Middle East and North Africa.Even in the developed economies of the European Union, the difference in average gross hourly earnings between men and women across the economy is 15 per cent, the ILO said.States must make more of an effort not just to address pay imbalances but also to render the working environment more compatible with the demands of family life, such as better access to childcare and the option of part-time working, the report said.Nampa-AFPThe ILO said such practices “raise important questions about where to draw the line between employers’ control over what employees do outside the workplace, and people’s freedom to lead the life they choose.”The report highlighted the Geneva-based World Health Organisation as one example, after the UN agency announced in December 2005 that it would no longer hire smokers unless they promised to kick the habit, even in their private lives.The ILO said this would be a form of discrimination, unless smoking directly impedes an individual’s ability to do his or her job.”This is not a measure we would recommend…it is not permitted to base discrimination on grounds unrelated to job performance,” ILO official Lee Swepson told journalists.The ILO did concede though that “curbing tobacco consumption or reducing cholesterol levels or obesity are all desirable and legitimate public health policies.”On the issue of screening, the agency cited an example of three men in Hong Kong who were awarded damages in court, after being denied employment by the government because their parents were affected by schizophrenia.”Genetic testing may easily lead to unjustified dismissal or denial of employment,” it warned in its report, “Equality at work: Tackling the challenges.”Women remain the most discriminated group in the global workforce, with pay and participation rates still lagging behind men across all sectors of the economy, the report said.Whilst most of the ILO’s 180 members have ratified its two core conventions on discrimination, there remains a big gap between the statute books and the actual situation in the workplace, the report said.”When it comes to our struggle with discrimination in the world today, we see some progress but still considerable hills and mountains ahead of us,” ILO official Zafar Shaheed said.Worldwide, female labour participation rates have continued to rise.Some 56,6 per cent of women of working age worldwide are economically active, according to the ILO.Wide regional disparities remain however, with rates ranging from 71,1 per cent in North America, to just 32 per cent in the Middle East and North Africa.Even in the developed economies of the European Union, the difference in average gross hourly earnings between men and women across the economy is 15 per cent, the ILO said.States must make more of an effort not just to address pay imbalances but also to render the working environment more compatible with the demands of family life, such as better access to childcare and the option of part-time working, the report said.Nampa-AFP