Mapping anti-discrimination law onto inequality at work: Expanding the meaning of equality in international labour law

• Published in: International labour review Vol. 151; no. 1-2; pp. 1 - 19
• Main Author: SHEPPARD, Colleen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2012; International Labour Organization, represented by the International Labour Office (ILO)
• Subjects: Affirmative action; comment; Community life; Conventions; Convergence; Discrimination; Employment discrimination; Employment opportunities; equal employment opportunity; Equal rights; Equality; Ethnicity; Family; Gender Discrimination; ILO Convention; ILO Recommendation; Inequalities; Inequality; Informal economy; Initiatives; International; International division of labour; International law; Labor law; Labor market; Labour law; Law; Markets; Poor families; Poverty; Principles; Recognition (Achievement); Regulation; Religion; role of ILO; Socioeconomic development; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomic status; Studies; Sustainable Development; Workers' rights
• ISSN: 0020-7780; 1564-913X
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1564-913X.2012.00132.x

. This article explores the evolving relationship between the concept of discrimination in international labour law and the socio‐economic phenomenon of inequality at work. While non‐discrimination was initially understood as a fairly limited legal principle mandating equal treatment for similarly situated individuals, it subsequently expanded to address indirect discrimination resulting from apparently neutral rules, standards and practices at work. It has expanded further to take on group‐based patterns of inequality at work related to the structural constraints of the market, the family and community life, ultimately resulting in convergence between anti‐discrimination law and legal initiatives to reduce class‐based socioeconomic inequality and poverty.