Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 83rd ILC session (1996)

1. The Committee notes the Government's report, in particular its reply to the Committee's previous direct request concerning preferences in employment permitted under section 5(4) of the Labour Code. The Government explains that such special measures are of a protective nature, mainly aimed at women, minors or persons with a disability. The Committee also notes the comment of the Hungarian Employers' Association that it recommends to its members to include cases of preferential treatment under this provision when negotiating collective agreements, particularly as regards protective provisions for work considered to be dangerous or difficult for female employees and minors. From the information supplied by the Government on the criteria used and the practical application of the provision, the Committee observes that the provision is in line with Article 5(2) of the Convention in that it involves non-discriminatory measures designed to meet the particular requirements of persons who are generally recognized to require special protection or assistance.

2. As highlighted in its observation, the Committee welcomes the various measures taken to improve the labour market situation of Gypsies (establishment of a list of Gypsy experts who can act as labour market consultants for this minority, networking with ethnic and national minority committees on labour-related matters, publication of research and sensibilization material, elaboration of vocational training "catch-up" courses, participation of Gypsy representatives in labour centres, hiring by local governments of Gypsy labour assistants, participation of Gypsy families in the "social land fund" programme set up to encourage self-employment on the land).

3. More particularly as regards access to employment and particular occupations, according to the report, the Government commenced a Gypsy crisis-management programme aimed at providing equal chances for Gypsies to exercise the rights that every citizen is entitled to, to eliminate prejudice-driven practices in the labour market and, where necessary, to use positive action. The Ministry of Labour's 1994 Report on Crisis-management for Unemployed Gypsies, attached to the Government report, describes the measures taken to improve the poor labour market position of this group: design of a system to register unemployed Gypsies; a survey to evaluate domestic training programmes for them given their characteristic low level of educational achievement; public service training activities; creation of the above-mentioned "social land fund" to encourage self-supporting self-employed family groupings; creation of a nationwide centre for Gypsy entrepreneurship; and improved links between the Labour Market Organization and Gypsy communities. The report also contains an analysis of the results of these programmes to date, based on, among others, the professional forum held to examine county level implementation during 1993. These results showed, inter alia, the need for better use by the Labour Market Organization of available data, and for better data through unemployment registration, and that public sector work appeared to be the most successful instrument in improving Gypsy access to employment (60-70 per cent of formerly unemployed Gypsies became involved in public work, usually in municipalities).

4. The Committee notes with interest that many of the above-listed measures have been possible in the positive climate following the entry into force of the Act on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities (No. LXXVII) of 7 July 1993 which, inter alia, recognizes individual and collective rights of minorities (of which 13 are listed in section 42), their cultural and educational autonomy and representation through self-governments and ombudsmen and their right to use and receive education in their mother tongues. Special emphasis is laid by the Act on the financial means necessary to realize its provisions: funding comes partly from budgetary appropriations under the Act on Finances, and partly from the National and Ethnic Minority Fund (created under section 55(3)). The Act also provides that in settlements where persons belonging to a minority are also living, when appointments are made to local public service jobs, it is to be ensured that a person who has, in addition to the necessary professional qualifications, a proficiency in the given minority language be employed (section 54).

5. As regards access to education and training, the Committee also notes the information provided by the Government in its report on the Convention on the Elimination on All Forms of Racial Discrimination (UN document CERD/C/263/Add.6 of 3 May 1995) on the Act on Public Education (No. LXXIX) of 1993. The Act aims at ensuring the right to education based on equal opportunity and that of national and ethnic minorities to education in their mother tongue. From that report, it appears that a Gypsy grammar school has been opened, a Day of Romany Culture has been organized twice and a festival of Gypsy films held several times in Budapest as part of the sensitization of the public to this minority.

6. The Committee would appreciate receiving further information on the positive action measures and programmes taken in favour of groups of different national extraction, particularly Gypsies, and the results they achieve in the fields covered by Article 1(3) of the Convention. The Committee is particularly interested in measures taken to overcome discrimination in access to jobs and in terms and conditions of employment in view of the findings of the 1994 study undertaken within the ILO/Japan Project on Employment policies for Transition in Hungary (concerning the labour market situation of the Gypsy minority, copy attached to the Government's report) which documented anti-Gypsy discrimination in hiring, and a 20 per cent hourly wage rate gap between Gypsy and non-Gypsy groups.

7. Regarding section 75 of the Labour Code and its implementing Order No. 6/1982 of the Ministry of Health (which contains a very broad ban on women working in occupations that may have detrimental consequences for their physical constitution or development), the Committee notes with interest from the report that the Order is to be revised by a draft. According to the Government, the draft will remove the numerous prohibitions which are not justified by female biological characteristics and physiological conditions linked to their reproductive role, and a copy of the adopted text will be transmitted to the Committee. The Committee looks forward to receiving this new text.

8. The Committee notes the statistics supplied by the Government in its National Report on the Situation of Hungarian Women, prepared for the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September 1995. They show that the level of female general education reaches and, in young age groups, even exceeds that of males, there is marked gender segregation in the type of schools and subjects chosen for study (girls represent 66 per cent of grammar school students, where they prevail in health and commercial studies; boys represent 66 per cent of apprentice school students, where they dominate in areas leading to heavy industry and construction occupations). The Committee also notes that while, in the 1993-94 academic year, 52 per cent of university and college students were female, and that in 1994 women represented 50 per cent of full-time active earners, this does not necessarily lead to equal representation in high prestige jobs (76 per cent of workers in health care and social work are women, and 66 per cent in commerce, and there are fewer female than male managers and supervisors). The Committee accordingly requests the Government to inform it of the positive measures under consideration or being taken to overcome the horizontal and vertical discrimination in employment based on the sex of women workers.

9. Noting from the Beijing Report that no government agency has been established to handle female policy, whether in general or specifically for access to training, to employment and in the field of terms and conditions of employment, but that unions and cooperatives have set up in-house women's committees responsible for women's issues arising at work, the Committee asks the Government to describe how it is seeking the cooperation of workers' and employers' organizations in promoting national policy on gender equality in employment, in accordance with Article 3(a) of the Convention.