This Tuesday, the government approved a royal decree containing mandatory measures for the equality of LGTBI people that companies with more than 50 workers must implement. These include a protocol against harassment and violence with preventive practices and detection and action mechanisms. The rule will thus bring to the BOE the last tripartite agreement that Vice-President Yolanda Díaz concluded with the unions and employers.
“We are a country at the forefront of LGBTI rights. Not only in Europe, but in the world”, underlined Vice President Yolanda Díaz when announcing the standard, which she recalls derives from the so-called trans law, “for real equality and effective for trans people and to guarantee the rights of LGBTI people.
Anti-discrimination measures will apply to the entire workforce of these companies with more than 50 employees. Also to workers assigned by ETTs (temporary employment companies) during their provision of services.
The anti-harassment protocol will also apply “to job applicants, procurement personnel, suppliers, customers and visitors,” specifies the Ministry of Labor.
Anti-harassment protocol
Among the mandatory measures, companies must include a protocol against harassment and violence specific to LGTBI people where preventive practices and mechanisms for detection and action against them are identified.
The unions have agreed with the unions and employers on certain minimums that this protocol must contain, among which determine an express procedure for the presentation of complaints or grievances, “as well as the maximum period for their resolution”; the “confidentiality” of those involved in the process; and “sufficient protection of the victim against possible reprisals, taking care of their safety and health, taking into account possible consequences, both physical and psychological,” among others.
It is also necessary to provide for the existence of “precautionary or preventive measures which separate the victim from the person who harasses while the action procedure takes place until its resolution”.
The committee responsible for the anti-harassment protocol “must submit a binding report on the agreed working days, opening a disciplinary file or lodging a complaint”, Labor is told.
Other measures for equality
Although companies will be free to determine their own measures to ensure equality and non-discrimination of LGTBI people, the regulation sets minimums.
Among them, they highlight the training of those involved in the processes of access to employment, who select personnel, “establishing clear criteria to guarantee adequate processes”.
Business permits and benefits must “take into account the reality of diverse LGTBI families, spouses and de facto partners, ensuring access to permits, benefits and rights without any discrimination.”
Concretely, the authorizations envisaged to attend medical consultations or legal proceedings will be guaranteed, “with particular attention to trans people”, they emphasize in Work.
If there is a disciplinary regime, it must include “offenses and sanctions for behaviors that violate workers’ sexual freedom, sexual orientation and identity, and gender expression.”
Up to three months to negotiate
The approved regulation grants a transitional period to companies to negotiate and implement the measures. In cases where companies have collective agreements or legal representation of staff, they will have three months to establish the negotiating table, while those that do not have this will have more time: six months.
In any case, the government gives three months from the start of negotiations to apply at least the minimum content of the regulations. Companies will always be able to expand and improve their protocols and measures in favor of equality, recalls the Ministry of Labor.
The Labor Inspectorate will ensure compliance with the decree and “that the agreed measures adapt to legal and regulatory requirements”, we add in Le Travail.
