In the name of knowledge and the law: Testing
Gwénaële Calvès
“Testing” or “situation tests”, which first appeared in Great Britain and the United States, are currently experiencing a boom in France in a context marked by the intensification of efforts against discrimination. Testing has two facets, scientific and legal, that are not progressing in sync. As illustrated in a series of contributions compiled in this dossier, each facet has its own issues and limitations. While testing is no panacea, it is an area for research and action that the authorities must not neglect.
discrimination – testing – criminal law

Situation tests in employment discrimination in the United States
Marc Bendick, Jr.
Over the past decade, more than 30 situation testing studies have been conducted in the USA on race, gender, age, and other forms of discrimination in the labor market. This research has typically documented discriminatory behavior, conscious or unconscious, by 20% to 40% of employers. These findings have influenced public opinion and government policy by publicizing the continued prevalence of discrimination in a particularly persuasive way. They have also been used to change employers’ behavior through legal action, and they have added to our understanding of the psychological and organizational processes of discrimination. Expanded use of this investigative technique can contribute importantly toward addressing the serious problem of employment discrimination in industrial societies.
minorities – race – women – hiring – stereotypes – affirmative action

The tribulations of testing in Belgium: What lessons can be learned?
Véronique van der Plancke
While judicial testing was explicitly established in the Belgian anti-discrimination laws of 25 February 2003, it disappeared from the statute books in new legislation dated 10 May 2007. It is the case that both the admissibility of situation tests and the need to incorporate them into a rigorous methodology had given rise to criticism from all sides. Proprietors and employers saw testing as a technique for infiltrating and informing on companies that would reduce their freedom of contract. Organisations for the defence of victims of discrimination, on the other hand, feared the end of the mechanism, as it would be accompanied by rigid and costly conditions. In 2007, the legislature took a sideways step. Without prohibiting the use of the term “situation test”, it expressed a preference for the terms “test of recurrence” and “test of comparability”, which are less laden in symbolic terms but are similar in many aspects to the previous term. For example, the introduction of various tests is now part of a broader questioning: the clarification of elements that allow for a presumption of the existence of discrimination. There are still more methodological questions to be raised by the use of all of these tests.
 “Judicial” testing – new Belgian anti-discrimination laws – burden of proof of a direct discrimination – test of situation, test of recurrence and test of comparability – methodological lack – respect of human rights

The discrimination test and criminal evidence
Frédéric Burnier and Brigitte Pesquié
Since the vote on the equal opportunity law in 2006, the discrimination test can be used as evidence in court. Controversy surrounding the reliability of this method of establishing proof has subsided. However, the test is no more than a source of information that does not allow the user to provide convincing evidence if it does not meet certain requirements. The comparison must be between candidates who can objectively be considered similar (similar professional experience, similar performance, etc.) and find themselves in the same circumstances and context. It must be possible to show that the reason for the end of equality is discrimination. Above all, the difference in treatment given to the benchmark candidate and that susceptible to discrimination must be ascertained by neutral third parties, with an objective and rigorous verification of what these third parties have witnessed.
criminal law – discrimination – criminal legal procedure – burden of proof – reliability of witnesses

PSA Peugeot Citroën in the face of testing
Daniel Bouchard
PSA Peugeot Citroën has tested its recruitment process, studying seven discrimination variables. Overall, the results of the test were satisfactory. Several provisions were made internally (training for recruiters, anonymous curricula vitae, MRS, Assessment Centre) and externally (vis-à-vis sensitive urban areas, disabled workers, women) and were accompanied by audits conducted by the department of human resources and inspections conducted by the recruitment service itself.
job discrimination – job – recruitment

The review of the budget of the European Union: For a global political analysis
Yves Bertoncini
The imminent review of the European financial framework should encourage stakeholders and concerned observers to better integrate underlying political issues: financial issues, by analysing EU expenditures as well as national public expenditures and private expenditures; diplomatic issues, by emphasising that the budget of the European Union is first and foremost a mechanism for redistribution between Member States as part of a “fair return” philosophy; and sociological issues, by taking into account the growing number of agents involved in formulating the EU budget and their different visions and interests. Such a global vision would only appear likely to effectively enlighten future negotiations on the budget of the European Union.
European financial framework – aggregate public expenditures – redistribution – fair return – political compromises

Social protection in Germany: Increasing generational inequality?
Reinhold Sackmann
The article focuses on institutionalized generational relations, i.e. anonymous relations, because social tensions rose in this area whereas personal generational relations got better during the last decades. It is shown that esp. in the German retirement policy decades of early retirement policy resulted non-intentionally in the mid 1990s in a major financial and legitimacy crisis that was characterised by rising generational inequity. Reforms during the last decade, in part inspired by a generational equity debate, resulted in effective measures countering the financial crisis. Generational imbalances within labor market law and more predictable reforms in pension system are still open for debate. This could be the beginning of a change of the guiding idea of social policy from security to flexicurity.
social policy – generational equity – early retirement – labour market policy – social structure

Towards interministerial post-conflict management?
Niagalé Bagayoko and Christophe Cazelles
The introduction of interministerial instruments for post-conflict management is increasingly considered a necessity by all agents in the French government. And yet, a number of bureaucratic and institutional rivalries are currently stifling attempts at reform. A networking of instruments mobilised, as well as the implementation of a centralised interministerial mechanism, would at present appear to be the most promising course of action.
interministerial cooperation – post-conflict management – Ministry of Foreign Affairs – development – ministry of Defence – cooperation