European Experience for Chinese Anti-Discrimination in Employment Law

1. ILO convention as an introduction

It is widely accepted that equity is one of the main values we human pursue for a

very long time. People around the world fight against various discriminations on

grounds of different bases. Law, of course, plays an extremely important role in this

long, slow and difficult journey to the human rights. The idea or the principle of

non-discrimination is a macro issue itself. In order to avoid too much references on

various philosophy writings, we could have a look at an important convention in this

field, Convention concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and

Occupation(C111)1, adopted by International Labour Organization in 1958.

Article 1

1. For the purpose of this Convention the term discrimination includes--

(a) any distinction, exclusion or preference made on the basis of race, colour,

sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, which has

the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in

employment or occupation;

(b) such other distinction, exclusion or preference which has the effect of

nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or

occupation as may be determined by the Member concerned after consultation

with representative employers' and workers' organisations, where such exist, and

with other appropriate bodies.

2. Any distinction, exclusion or preference in respect of a particular job based

on the inherent requirements thereof shall not be deemed to be discrimination.

3. For the purpose of this Convention the terms employment and occupation

include access to vocational training, access to employment and to particular

occupations, and terms and conditions of employment.

1 http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C111 Last visitation: May 4th 2011.

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From Article 1 of C111, we could have a basic idea of what constitutes a

discrimination. Along with the Article 42

Any measures affecting an individual who is justifiably suspected of, or

engaged in, activities prejudicial to the security of the State shall not be deemed

to be discrimination, provided that the individual concerned shall have the right

to appeal to a competent body established in accordance with national practice.

and Article 53

1.Special measures of protection or assistance provided for in other

Conventions or Recommendations adopted by the International Labour

Conference shall not be deemed to be discrimination.

2. Any Member may, after consultation with representative employers' and

workers' organisations, where such exist, determine that other special measures

designed to meet the particular requirements of persons who, for reasons such

as sex, age, disablement, family responsibilities or social or cultural status, are

generally recognised to require special protection or assistance, shall not be

deemed to be discrimination.

We also could know the principle of what does not constitute a discrimination, in

other words, Justification.

These two issues, as well as other detailed situations and rules, in People's Republic

of China(PRC) and European Union(EU) will be the topic of this paper.

2 http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C111 Last visitation: May 4th 2011.

3 http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C111 Last visitation: May 4th 2011.

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2. The situations of discriminations in

employment and anti-discrimination in

employment law in China

Generally speaking, the employment discrimination in China is considerately

common to see and serious. You might find a job notice similar with the following

almost everywhere: The company need to recruit several salesman to develop the

business. Requirement: male, Beijing accounts(Beijing Hukou), below the age of 35,

Bachelor degree or above, priority of member of Communist Party of China(CPC)

and no candidate from Henan Province.4 Even the jobs of civil servants offered by

the central and local governments are fullfilled with very unreasonable restrictions:

the medical standards of civil servants in Hunan Province in 2003 restrict the female

candidate with "Obvious secondary sexual characteristics, symmetry breast" and so

on.

According to the examples above, we can make such a judgement that the

employment and occupation market is fulfilled with all kinds of discrimination which

are unbelievably serious, both in civil and public fields. This shows that Chinese

society are lack of the most fundamental idea of equal opportunities and the

mechanism to promote them.

A