Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Europe Must Take Action To Protect LGBT People In The Workplace

Karel Fric 17th May 2016

Karel Fric

Karel Fric

17 May is International day against homophobia, transphobia and biphobia. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people face distinct disadvantages in the labour market ranging from discrimination in recruitment, wages or promotions to harassment and bullying in the workplace. Such problems are present across the entire EU and on average, 19% of LGBT employees feels discriminated at work.

Conditions in some countries are worse than in others. Initiatives aimed at addressing prejudice tend to be implemented in countries that are already more tolerant towards LGBT. By contrast, governments and the social partners are largely inactive in countries where there is more acute prejudice; if any action is taken, it tends to come from NGOs. Reaching consensus at EU has proven to be problematic, as shown by the recent failure to find agreement on a list of actions to promote LGBTI equality at a March meeting of the council of employment and social affairs ministers (EPSCO).

Legally protected but discriminated against

In the EU, the Employment Equality Directive (2000/78/EC) and Employment and Social Security Directive (2006/54/EC) forbid discrimination in employment based on – among other grounds – sexual orientation and sexual identity. Despite the legal protection that LGBT people enjoy, a new Eurofound paper presents overwhelming evidence that they face discrimination in recruitment and employment.

The Eurobarometer survey from 2015 shows that in northern and western Europe people seem to be more comfortable with having LGBT work colleagues. However, LGBT colleagues experience more issues in eastern and southern EU Member States. In all countries, the unease felt by having a transgender colleague is even stronger than in the case of gay men, lesbians or bisexuals.

These differences in public attitudes are reflected in reported incidents of discrimination. The Fundamental Rights Agency’s (FRA) EU LGBT survey 2012 has revealed that one in five (19%) LGBT employees in the EU felt discriminated at work in the 12 months preceding the survey. Generally, Baltic and Balkan Member States had the highest proportions of LGBT employees who felt discriminated at work. A body of national surveys and academic research also indicates that LGBT employees face distinct disadvantages at the workplace compared to their heterosexual colleagues.

Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content.


We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Thank you!

Please check your inbox and click on the link in the confirmation email to complete your newsletter subscription.

.

Figure 1: Proportion of LGBT employees who felt discriminated at work (in 12 months preceding the survey) and who always hide or disguise being LGBT at work (in 5 years preceding the survey) per country (EU28, 2012)

fric_graph

Source:   FRA LGBT Survey 2012 data explorer

Secret at work

Many LGBT employees are forced to hide their sexual orientation at work due to fear of discrimination and harassment. The extent of discrimination reported by LGBT respondents is particularly alarming since almost a third (29%) always hide their sexual identity and orientation at work. The number of respondents who felt able to disclose their sexual orientation or identity at work was lowest in Baltic and Balkan EU Member States. Hiding one’s sexual orientation is often stressful and may have a negative impact on the individual’s productivity, self-esteem, depth of friendships, and ability to work as part of a team.

The social stigma attached to being LGBT can be so acute as to even discourage victims of discrimination or harassment from coming forward. For this reason, traditional measures of discrimination that are applied to that based on sexual orientation are likely to under-report the severity of the issue. This lack of reliable information forms a barrier in addressing the discrimination of LGBT people on the labour market.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

Actions of social partners and governments

In order to address the position of LGBT people in society and in the labour market, the European Commission published in December 2015 a list of specific targeted actions aimed at combating LGBTI discrimination in the EU in 2016–2019. In February 2016, the Permanent Representatives Committee of the Council of the EU reached an agreement on a list of actions to promote LGBTI equality. However, in March 2016, the EPSCO Council was unable to reach majority support for the text. Nearly all Member States supported the list of actions, however Hungary prevented the conclusion of a final agreement in the Council . According to the Hungarian representative, LGBTI “is a complex, politically highly sensitive issue for many member states, it touches upon questions belonging to the exclusive competence of the member states, like family law, and it has an effect on the member states’ constitutional rules, principles and values”.

The report of The Network of Socio-Economic Experts in the Non-Discrimination Field from 2010 concludes that the policies aimed at improving access to work for LGBT people are inadequate throughout Europe. The amount of attention social partners and governments pay to LGBT issues in the labour market varies between Member States.

In northern and western Europe, in countries such as Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands and Sweden, there is a pro-active and comprehensive approach to preventing and combating discrimination of LGBT people in the labour market. In some other countries, such as Belgium, Germany, France and Italy the promotion of rights of LGBT workers is less common, or involves only specific actors. The situation is different in many new Member States. The governments and social partners in Cyprus, Czechia, Hungary, Latvia, Romania or Slovakia have not taken any significant actions that would address the situation of LGBT employees. In these countries, LGBT people do not exert sufficient influence in social partners organisations so advocacy aimed at promoting LGBT rights in the labour market is therefore mostly driven by NGOs.

A variety of initiatives can be identified around Europe aimed at combatting discrimination against LGBT people – action plans or public commitments, awareness campaigns, training activities, workshops, networking activities for employers or LGBT employees, sharing of good practices or help for victims of discrimination. In Germany, Netherlands and Spain, guidelines and checklists were developed advising how to to address LGBT equality issues in collective agreements.

Action is lacking where it is needed the most

One significant issue is that social partners’ and governments’ initiatives are lacking especially in countries where public attitudes towards LGBT people are relatively more regressive. This is not simply due to a lack of political will, but also to lack of knowledge about the labour market situation of LGBT people and their high level of invisibility. Such a situation is worrying, because the promotion of LGBT rights in the workplace happens least in countries where it is needed the most. This in turn contributes to maintaining social stigma.

Karel Fric

Karel Fric, from the Czech Republic, is a research officer at Eurofound and works on the European Observatory of Working Life (EurWORK) and projects concerning the working conditions and industrial relations.

Home ・ Politics ・ Europe Must Take Action To Protect LGBT People In The Workplace

Most Popular Posts

schools,Sweden,Swedish,voucher,choice Sweden’s schools: Milton Friedman’s wet dreamLisa Pelling
world order,Russia,China,Europe,United States,US The coming world orderMarc Saxer
south working,remote work ‘South working’: the future of remote workAntonio Aloisi and Luisa Corazza
Russia,Putin,assets,oligarchs Seizing the assets of Russian oligarchsBranko Milanovic
Russians,support,war,Ukraine Why do Russians support the war against Ukraine?Svetlana Erpyleva

Most Recent Posts

trade,values,Russia,Ukraine,globalisation Peace and trade—a new perspectiveGustav Horn
biodiversity,COP15,China,climate COP15: negotiations must come out of the shadowsSandrine Maljean-Dubois
reproductive rights,abortion,hungary,eastern europe,united states,us,poland The uneven battlefield of reproductive rightsAndrea Pető
LNG,EIB,liquefied natural gas,European Investment Bank Ukraine is no reason to invest in gasXavier Sol
schools,Sweden,Swedish,voucher,choice Sweden’s schools: Milton Friedman’s wet dreamLisa Pelling

Other Social Europe Publications

The transatlantic relationship
Women and the coronavirus crisis
RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?
US election 2020
Corporate taxation in a globalised era

Eurofound advertisement

Living and working in Europe 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to be a defining force in 2021, and Eurofound continued its work of examining and recording the many and diverse impacts across the EU. Living and working in Europe 2021 provides a snapshot of the changes to employment, work and living conditions in Europe. It also summarises the agency’s findings on issues such as gender equality in employment, wealth inequality and labour shortages. These will have a significant bearing on recovery from the pandemic, resilience in the face of the war in Ukraine and a successful transition to a green and digital future.


AVAILABLE HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

EU Care Atlas: a new interactive data map showing how care deficits affect the gender earnings gap in the EU

Browse through the EU Care Atlas, a new interactive data map to help uncover what the statistics are often hiding: how care deficits directly feed into the gender earnings gap.

While attention is often focused on the gender pay gap (13%), the EU Care Atlas brings to light the more worrisome and complex picture of women’s economic inequalities. The pay gap is just one of three main elements that explain the overall earnings gap, which is estimated at 36.7%. The EU Care Atlas illustrates the urgent need to look beyond the pay gap and understand the interplay between the overall earnings gap and care imbalances.


BROWSE THROUGH THE MAP

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

Towards a new Minimum Wage Policy in Germany and Europe: WSI minimum wage report 2022

The past year has seen a much higher political profile for the issue of minimum wages, not only in Germany, which has seen fresh initiatives to tackle low pay, but also in those many other countries in Europe that have embarked on substantial and sustained increases in statutory minimum wages. One key benchmark in determining what should count as an adequate minimum wage is the threshold of 60 per cent of the median wage, a ratio that has also played a role in the European Commission's proposals for an EU-level policy on minimum wages. This year's WSI Minimum Wage Report highlights the feasibility of achieving minimum wages that meet this criterion, given the political will. And with an increase to 12 euro per hour planned for autumn 2022, Germany might now find itself promoted from laggard to minimum-wage trailblazer.


FREE DOWNLOAD

ETUI advertisement

Bilan social / Social policy in the EU: state of play 2021 and perspectives

The new edition of the Bilan social 2021, co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), reveals that while EU social policy-making took a blow in 2020, 2021 was guided by the re-emerging social aspirations of the European Commission and the launch of several important initiatives. Against the background of Covid-19, climate change and the debate on the future of Europe, the French presidency of the Council of the EU and the von der Leyen commission must now be closely scrutinised by EU citizens and social stakeholders.


AVAILABLE HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us on social media

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube