In the week in which the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed, we review the main international, European and Spanish regulations that seek the elimination of racial discrimination in the workplace.
In 1966, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) proclaimed March 21 as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This date commemorates the massacre that occurred in Shaperville (South Africa) in 1960, in which 69 people lost their lives in a demonstration against the apartheid pass law, marking a milestone in the momentum of the fight against racial discrimination. This year 2025, marks the 60th anniversary of the adoption by the UNGA of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which was the first international human rights treaty of the United Nations.
Within the European Union, the Directive 2000/43/EC, on implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, explains the importance of the fight against racism and xenophobia. This directive is applicable to all persons and to all sectors of activity regarding, among others, access to employment, working conditions (promotions, pay and dismissal) or access to vocational training. The directive prohibits direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and any instruction to discriminate and victimize, but gives member States the possibility to provide that a difference of treatment based on a characteristic related to racial or ethnic origin shall not be discriminatory where, by reason of the nature of the particular occupational activities or the context in which they are carried out, such a characteristic constitutes a genuine and determining occupational requirement, provided that the objective is legitimate and the requirement is proportionate. Further on, Directive 2000/78/EC, inspired by the previous directive, delimits the general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation.
Afterwards, the Directive (EU) 2024/1499, amended, among others, 2000/43/EC, and established rules concerning equality bodies in the field of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, and must be transposed by the member States no later than June 19, 2026.
For its part, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance —body of human rights experts that monitors action against racism, discrimination (on the grounds of race, ethnic or national origin, skin color, citizenship, religion, language, sexual orientation, gender identity and sexual characteristics) and intolerance in Europe— drew up its Recommendation No. 14 in 2012 to combat racism and racial discrimination in employment. It urges member States to strengthen legislation and develop best practices in employment to ensure protection against racism and discrimination in employment.
In Spain, the content of the European directives of the year 2000 previously mentioned was transposed into the legal system through Law 62/2003. It created a new legal protection framework for cases of discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin in our country, which complemented that established on the basis of article 14 of the Spanish Constitution, which establishes the fundamental right to non-discrimination on the grounds of birth, race, sex, religion, opinion or any other personal or social condition or circumstance.
In the employment field, the Workers’ Statute (article 4) establishes the right of employees not to be discriminated against on the basis of their racial or ethnic origin, among other grounds. This right has been reinforced with the publication of the Law 15/2022, of July 12, comprehensive for equal treatment and non-discrimination, which seeks, in the words of the legislator, to place Spain among the States in our environment that have the most effective and advanced institutions, instruments and legal techniques for equal treatment and non-discrimination.
According to the latest report prepared in 2020 by the Council for the Elimination of Racial or Ethnic Discrimination of the Spanish Ministry of Equality on the perception of discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin, the rate of perceived discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin in the workplace decreased from 46.7% in 2011 to 25.8% in 2020 (measured by the survey conducted by said Council to potential victims).
There is no doubt that the eradication of racial discrimination in general, and in the work environment in particular, is a challenge facing Spain, as well as the rest of the member States of the European Union. However, as the European Commission’s report of March 19, 2021, on the implementation of the aforementioned directives recalls, “legislation alone is not enough to guarantee full equality”.
Education, sensitization and social awareness of the problems that racial discrimination generates should be the necessary complement to our legal system to achieve the complete elimination of racial discrimination. In the labor sphere, a good practice in companies could be the implementation of protocols for the protection of human rights in the workplace, including the elimination of racial discrimination.
Carlos Nacenta Mora
