According to a study carried out by UGT, 40% of LGTBI people hide their orientation at work to avoid being discriminated against
Un 78% of lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual and intersex (LGTBI) people have suffered some type of vviolence at work or with a 40% have hidden their orientation to avoid it, according to the latest data from the permanent survey carried out since last year by UGT «to give visibility to normalized violence against this group in the workplace«.
This was stated this Tuesday by the confederal coordinator of the LGTBI Area of UGT, Toño Abad, in a technical day organized by the union in Santander, in collaboration with the Government of Cantabria through the Cantabrian Employment Service (EMCAN), for the training of more than fifty delegates in the defense of the rights of this group, which will extend throughout the country, first to union representatives and then to workers and company management teams.
Abbot has indicated that the survey that the union has been carrying out among people LGTBI reaffirms a situation «worrying» in the workplace, which is «homogeneous» in all the territories of Spain because it occurs in «similar terms» both in Cantabria and in any other autonomous community.
Transphobia at work
The coordinator has also referred to the results of the survey on trans people, which in 40% of cases say they have been expelled from the labor market due to their gender identity and 15% directly in job interviews. As he explained, these situations of violence have a "direct consequence" in the loss of rights, such as accompanying a spouse to medical visits or marriage permission.
For his part, the secretary general of UGT in Cantabria, Mariano Carmona, who participated in the opening ceremony of the meeting, highlighted this training, aimed at delegates and members of works councils, who are «those in charge of defending the rights of LGTBI workers«. Carmona has highlighted that UGT is being an organization «pioneer» in the study of the situation of LGTBI people in the labor market and in demanding measures to end «once and for all» with any type of discrimination against this group.
Additional labor support measures
The confederal coordinator of the LGTBI Area of UGT has stressed that one of the union's priority objectives is to end a situation «unacceptable» in the workplace, which is why they have already moved to the social dialogue table with the Ministry of Labor a series of measures aimed at Trans and LGTBI Law, including the obligation for companies with at least 50 workers to adopt these measures.
As indicated, these measures will affect almost three million workers in the group. LGTBI that exists in Spain today and will begin with awareness-raising, sensitization and training actions on the situation. In addition, UGT has already proposed to the social dialogue measures to modify the sanctioning regimes and protocols against discriminatory harassment of the LGTBI collective, which needs «additional support measures«.
