Employment discrimination phenomenon

Judging from the objects of discrimination, the main discrimination encountered by workers in China in the process of employment is shown in the following aspects:

1, Household Registration System and Urban and Rural Employment Discrimination

Some scholars have pointed out that the most serious employment discrimination in China comes from the existing household registration system. The fixed household registration system supports employment discrimination in the labor market, increases the migration cost and mobility cost of floating employment, and restricts the right of workers to choose their own jobs on an equal basis. The household registration system has brought about double or even multiple divisions of the labor market and discrimination in the job market. At the same time, the labor force between rural areas and cities and between cities cannot be allocated by the market mechanism. This artificial institutional obstacle violates the mechanism of market economy.

The root of this situation can be traced back to the result of institutional intervention by administrative forces in the market. Historically, the governments of most developing countries have implemented control policies on domestic immigrants, and there is also a phenomenon of labor market segmentation in these countries, that is, protecting urban workers and adopting a discriminatory attitude towards immigrant labor. Through the analysis of political economy, some scholars believe that urban residents, motivated by safeguarding vested interests and influencing the decision-making process of local governments, have helped to form a discriminatory employment policy that excludes migrant workers or foreigners, resulting in the division of the labor market. This policy of distorting the labor market is actually an integral part of the urban bias policy. The division and distortion of the labor market in China before the reform is the endogenous requirement of the priority development strategy of heavy industry, which was formed and maintained through a series of predetermined institutional mechanisms. Since the reform, labor market segmentation still exists and is often strengthened, which reflects the interests of urban residents and is mainly realized through local government policies. Worried urban residents induce government protection (discrimination) policies through various lobbying activities, resulting in inefficient resource allocation.

2. Gender discrimination

It should be acknowledged that China has made remarkable achievements in eliminating gender discrimination and promoting gender equality. In terms of equal employment between men and women and the protection of women's rights and interests, the state has promulgated a series of laws and regulations, such as the Labor Law, the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests, and the Provisions on the Labor Protection of Female Workers. Article 13 of the Labor Law particularly emphasizes that women enjoy equal employment rights with men.

However, in reality, even though these laws and regulations regulate the legal relationship between employers and employees, there is still serious gender discrimination in the employment field. Many employers are unwilling to hire women, or adopt unequal standards for male and female job seekers, in order to circumvent the provisions of the labor law that pregnant women and lactating women should not be dismissed. In the job market, there are many job advertisements that explicitly restrict gender. Although there is no gender restriction on the surface, many units "give priority to men" as soon as they enter the interview. There are also some private enterprises that violate the legitimate rights and interests of female workers by changing their positions and wages during pregnancy. Of course, from the perspective of gender discrimination, it is prominent that women encounter gender discrimination in the job market. Some employers only recruit women or give priority to women according to their own wishes, which also constitutes discrimination against male workers.

Some scholars have suggested that gender-based employment discrimination (that is, employment discrimination against female workers) and household registration employment discrimination (that is, employment discrimination against rural workers) are the most common and serious types of employment discrimination in China.

3. Age discrimination

In some job advertisements, you can often see age-related restrictive conditions, such as the recruitment of secretarial staff, which generally requires women, aged between 22 and 28. At the same time, due to the large population in China, the employment structure tends to be younger. Some employers set an almost harsh age limit when recruiting, excluding a large number of older job seekers. More and more enterprises limit the age to under 35 when recruiting employees. Some units use compulsory methods to let employees who reach a certain age leave or retire automatically, or when employees reach a certain age, their promotion will be affected.

4. Height discrimination

Height has also become the object of discrimination. In China, it is generally believed that people who are short and love heights have a bad image. What are the shortcomings of this non-working ability? Height is mostly determined by genetic factors, which is beyond personal control. Some employers often make rigid regulations on the height of job seekers in recruitment announcements, and job seekers whose height is not up to standard are even deprived of interview opportunities. Some units, such as the education department of a certain place, stipulate that men under the height of 160 cm are not allowed to be teachers when re-recognizing teachers' professional qualifications. This regulation not only restricts men under 160 cm from entering the teaching profession, but also many teachers who have been teaching for many years are facing the dilemma of being laid off.

5. Discrimination against "HBV carriers"

The problem of the employment right of hepatitis B virus carriers has a long history. It was not until April 2003 that the murder case in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province on Monday began to attract the attention of the whole society. China has a population of1400 million, and most of them have been infected with hepatitis virus. About 65.438+0.2 billion people are carriers of hepatitis B virus. Although authoritative medical experts have clearly believed that chronic hepatitis B virus carriers can work as usual except for a few special industries, many units restrict the employment of hepatitis B virus carriers by setting certain medical examination standards during the recruitment process. It is necessary and reasonable to set certain physical examination items and standards from the requirements of professional posts and the purpose of protecting workers' own rights and interests. However, judging from the correlation between the means to achieve this goal and the goal, the rationality of these projects and standards has been questioned and criticized. 20031mid-October, 165438+ The first administrative lawsuit of hepatitis B discrimination in China was accepted by the People's Court of Wuxin District, Wuhu City, Anhui Province. Until the beginning of April, 2004, the court made a judgment of first instance, and found that "the main evidence of the specific administrative act made by the defendant Wuhu Personnel Bureau in the recruitment process of Anhui national civil servants in 2003 to cancel the qualification of the plaintiff Zhang to enter the examination procedure was insufficient", but the court did not review the legality of the relevant provisions in the "General Normative Document" of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of Physical Examination of Anhui National Civil Servants (Trial). As a result of this lawsuit, during the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference meeting in 2002, Zhou, a member of the medical and health sector, jointly submitted a proposal on "protecting the legitimate rights and interests of hepatitis B virus carriers". In mid-October of 2003, 1 167 China citizens submitted a request to the China Municipal People's Congress for unconstitutional review of the regulations restricting hepatitis B virus carriers in civil servants' physical examinations.

Workers also suffer from other types of discrimination in the process of employment, such as experience discrimination. In some job advertisements, experience is often required, which makes some college students or people without work experience flinch. In fact, some positions do not rely too much on experience, but only need short-term working environment contact or training to be competent. What is even more incomprehensible is blood discrimination. Some companies require type O or type B blood when recruiting salespeople. Discrimination against surnames. According to media reports, a cloth boss refused to hire a female job seeker named Pei when recruiting sales staff, because the female surname is homophonic with "compensation", which is unlucky for businessmen.

6. Academic discrimination

With the increase of job seekers with master's and doctoral degrees in the talent market, the theory of "undergraduate origin" has also become popular, and the phenomenon of "checking three generations at a time" has appeared for doctoral job seekers.

Even if both master's degree and doctor's degree are from "prestigious schools", if the undergraduate course is unfortunately "reduced" to two or non-prestigious schools, the employer can easily let you out with only one recruitment brochure.

Xiong Bingqi, an educational scholar, believes that "checking three generations" by doctors is actually a serious academic discrimination. He analyzed that this situation is mainly due to the unscientific talent evaluation system of the employer, "talking about heroes with academic qualifications." "Now even some units will check whether high school is a prestigious school." This kind of talent evaluation system that violates employment equity.

Although China's existing employment promotion law requires ensuring employment fairness, in fact, the problem of academic discrimination in some large units is very serious, but no one has ever investigated it and it has never played its due role. "Xiong Bingqi said.