Martin Collins, Co-Director, Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre, speaking about the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) conference ‘Achieving Equality at Work: Promoting Socio-Economic Equality in Employment’
Today, Thursday 9th May 2024, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) held a conference ‘Achieving Equality at Work: Promoting Socio-Economic Equality in Employment’ with the strategic aim of examining ways to promote socio-economic equality in employment in practice for socio-economically disadvantaged groups. The key message of the conference is that to advance equality, it is crucial that we amend our equality laws to include socio-economic status as a ground of discrimination. Attending and speaking on behalf of Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre were Martin Collins, Co-Director, and Rudolf Simonic, Roma Employment worker, who spoke of the experience of Roma and Travellers in employment and Pavee Point’s asks with regards to the advancement of Traveller and Roma rights and inclusion in the workplace.
Despite near full employment in Ireland, groups facing high and systemic labour market barriers, such as Travellers and Roma, remain unemployed, or underemployed. This is not only due to racism and prejudice, but also to disadvantaged socio-economic status. An IHREC/ESRI report in 2017 ‘Who experiences discrimination in Ireland?’ indicates the impacts of systemic barriers on these groups; Irish Travellers are 10 times more likely than White Irish to experience discrimination when seeking work.
Speaking at the conference, Ruldolf Simonic, Roma Employment worker at Pavee Point, said, “In the 2022 Census, we know that there are 16,000 Roma living across all of Ireland, and we know from the Roma Needs Assessment, that both Roma and Travellers are facing racism, discrimination and barriers around education, accommodation, healthcare and employment. This is similar to the experience of migrants and undocumented marginalised groups working on farms and factories.”
Mr Simonic referenced efforts to further Traveller and Roma inclusion in the workplace, “Pavee Point welcomes the State’s Pilot Internship Scheme, however, we have to make sure that any internship schemes ran by the State have clear pathways for Travellers and Roma to progress into full-time, permanent employment.”
Speaking about the conference, Martin Collins further commented on the urgent need for increased pathways to and targets for Traveller and Roma employment, “Today’s conference offers an important opportunity to discuss access to employment and workplace rights of Traveller and Roma in Ireland. Employment is a key outstanding area in the area of Traveller and Roma rights and must be well supported with a comprehensive Employment, Training and Enterprise Plan with clear targets, indicators, timelines, and allocated resources. Although the State has committed to developing such a plan in their Programme for Government, this has yet to be realised.”
Mr Collins continued, “My colleague Rudolf, spoke to the precarious workplace experiences of Roma in Ireland, citing ‘Roma in Ireland: Accessing Decent Work, a report published by Pavee Point in 2022. Some of the key recommendations from this report, which Pavee Point is campaigning for, include: taking into consideration regulatory barriers experienced by Travellers and Roma in order to equality-proof mainstream employment policy and collecting ethnic data to implement equality monitoring across all state departments to support this aim. It is also crucial that the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy (NTRIS), which is currently under review, aligns with any employment, training and enterprise targets devised, and furthers their implementation.”
Dublin City Community Cooperative, Bridget Kelly, Development Worker, National Traveller Women’s Forum, Rudolf Simonic, Roma Employment Worker, Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre, Tanya Lawlor, IHREC, Andrew Chapple, National Traveller Policy Co-ordinator on Enterprise and Employment, Irish Traveller Movement