Cape Town - The International Labour Organisation (ILO) says that discrimination in the workplace is cause for growing concern, according to government news agency, BuaNews.
"Although progress had been made at combating discrimination in the workplace, rising gender disparities in income and other forms of discrimination including age, sexual orientation and HIV and Aids status were a cause for growing concern," said ILO in a report released on Thursday.
The study entitled, "Equality at work: Tackling the challenges" noted that the global picture of the struggle to overcome discrimination showed a mixture of advances and failures.
"People are not only being discriminated against based on their sex, race or religion, but also on newer criteria such as age, sexual orientation, HIV and Aids status and disability.
"These barriers to equality can prevent societies from realising the full potential of today's globalised economy," the report stated.
According to the report the ILO's member states have made great progress in their efforts to curtail discrimination in the workplace.
Condemnation 'universal'
"The condemnation of discrimination in employment and occupation is today almost universal," the study noted, citing that improvements have been made since its first edition was issued four years ago.
Since then, most of the ILO's 180 member states have ratified its two main conventions on discrimination.
However, the need to stamp out such discrimination has become far more urgent "in the face of a world that appears increasingly unequal, insecure and unsafe", the study observed.
Inequalities in income, assets and opportunities "dilute the effectiveness of any action aimed at combating discrimination".
The ILO further warned that "this may lead to political instability and social upheaval, which upset investment and economic growth".
Hurting competition
On Wednesday, the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD) released a report saying that South Africa had dropped 12 places to 50 in a list of 55 countries in global competitiveness rankings.
Local media speculated this may refer to the country's affirmative action policies, but Sello Mosai, executive manager of knowledge development at the SA National Productivity Institute (NPI) said it could include discrimination in all areas from age to religion.
One of the ILO study's major themes is the perpetuation of gender gaps in employment and pay as well as the need for policies that take work and family responsibilities into account to address this issue.
Women continue to represent a distinct minority in senior and managerial positions worldwide, with only 28.3% of all women holding such positions.
Gender discrimination in newsrooms
Last week, a gender audit by the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) found that white male journalists are paid more and hold more top positions in the country's newsrooms.
The Sanef report also found that black women are furthest down the ladder in terms of job positions and that on average, women earn 21% less than men and occupy less than 30% of top management postions.
In addition, the ILO report asserted that the likelihood of a person with a disability finding a job decreases as the level of disability increased.
With almost half a billion people with disabilities being of working age, there is mounting concern regarding discrimination against these people.
The study noted that in Europe, a person between the ages of 16 and 64 had a 66% likelihood finding employment, but this figure dipped to 47% for a moderately disabled person and dropped even further to 25% for a severely disabled person.
Also highlighted in the report was the penalisation of people with a genetic disposition to developing certain diseases or those who have lifestyles considered unhealthy.
