CC OO claims the companies that entered into LGTBI discrimination as a labor risk | Economy

Comisiones Obreras has presented this Wednesday the report LGBTIphobia from occupational risk prevention, which includes the lines of action to identify and tackle discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation in work environments. The union defends that this type of behavior generates “psychosocial damage” in workers—that is, they cause hostile work environments that end people’s mental health—and therefore, they should be treated as an occupational risk.

In Spain, two out of ten LGTBI people declare that they have suffered some discriminatory situation in their workplace, according to a study prepared by the European Agency for Fundamental Rights, to which CC OO refers in its report. Clean In addition to aggressive attitudes such as insults or threats, the union identifies others that range from assigning excessive tasks, giving contradictory orders or limiting the access of LGTBI people to activities facing the public.

“LGBTIphobia undermines and damages the mental and emotional health of workers,” said Carolina Vidal, Confederal Secretary for Women, Equality and Working Conditions. For this reason, CC OO proposes to address these problems also from the point of view of occupational health and consider them as a professional accident when it affects the mental well-being of people. Thus, the Confederal Secretary for Occupational Health, Mariano Sanz, has requested risk assessment protocols that help identify segregation behaviors in companies and protect the people affected. Imposing sanctions, processing the damage to health caused by these attacks as a professional contingency and guaranteeing the inclusive use of common areas are some of the recommendations launched by the document.

Sanz has called on employers to promote the establishment of guidelines that make these situations visible. “What we want is for these evaluations to be carried out in companies and the first step is to create a psychosocial risk evaluation protocol,” he commented. Vidal has also insisted on the need for union delegates to acquire the necessary training to be able to assess the damage derived from discriminatory conduct in each company and, based on these observations, to be able to create protocols that correct the damage.

In addition, in the text presented at the Madrid CCOO Trade Union Confederation, actions carried out by some companies in line with these recommendations are included as an example. The measures include training courses against homophobia, such as those proposed by the insurance company AXA; campaigns to encourage employees to indicate with which pronoun they want to be treated, in the case of Nationale-Nederland in Spain; creation of LGTBI networks within the company, at SEAT or diversity conferences and programs, at Uría Menéndez Abogados.

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