Discrimination at work: United Kingdom, India, South Korea

In South Korea, deaf and hard of hearing people face additional difficulties when looking for work – the rights of people with disabilities are not sufficiently respected there. Less than half of adults with disabilities are employed, and the situation for women is even more difficult, with only 22% of them having a job in 2021. Korean society holds the belief that people with disabilities are naive, so they are sometimes exploited.

Domestic workers in India face discrimination and violence based on caste and religious affiliation. Employers restrict their access to kitchens, toilets, lifts and places of worship. Muslims are particularly persecuted, changing their names so that they do not betray their religion, and women put on theirsari and bindi, traditionally associated with Hindu culture, when going to work. The number of domestic workers in India – where Muslims constitute about 15% of the 1.5 billion people – is unknown. The International Labour Organisation says there may be between 20 and 80 million of them.

According to a report by the Living Wage Foundation in the UK, 33% of workers of Bangladeshi origin, 29% of workers of Pakistani origin and 25% of black people earn less than a real, living wage (among white workers the problem affects 20%). 56% of ethnic minority workers say they have experienced some form of discrimination at work, 34% feel they have been disregarded for promotion because of their ethnicity and 29% have been refused a job because of their ethnicity.