India’s Workers: Employers Should Be Allowed to Discriminate

Workforce Management
But workers elsewhere overwhelmingly disagree.
By Garry Kranz
March 25, 2008

Workplace Bias: Here’s something about as shocking as seeing Santa Claus at Christmas: Most people don’t think racial discrimination in the workplace is a good idea. Nonprofit organization WorldPublicOpinion.org, in a global study of nearly 15,000 workers, says 90 percent believe that “treating people of different races and ethnicities equally is important, with 69 percent saying it is very important.” Interviews were conducted with people in 16 countries or regions—Azerbaijan, China, Egypt, France, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, the Palestinian territories, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States. Those polled are said to represent 58 percent of the world’s population.
Large majorities in most countries believe “employers should not be allowed to discriminate based on race or ethnicity,” and say increased government interference is needed to prevent such practices. France (94 percent), China (88 percent), the U.S. (86 percent), Indonesia (84 percent), Britain (83 percent) and Azerbaijan (82 percent) have the largest majorities opposed to corporate discriminatory behavior.
This opinion, however, is not universally held. In India—the only nation whose people voiced dissenting views—30 percent said employers should be permitted to reject job applicants on the basis of race or ethnicity. http://workforce.com/section/quick_takes/54378_2.html