- New structure: UGT La Rioja formalizes the creation of its LGTBI Area, a pioneering body for the defense of rights in Rioja workplaces.
- Leadership: Borja Llorente has been chosen as the person responsible for this new area, assuming the commitment to coordinate the union’s equality policies.
- Urgent mission: The office was created to stop critical data, such as the fact that 44% of the group still hides their identity in job interviews.
The UGT union in La Rioja has marked a before and after in the history of regional unionism with the formal constitution of its LGTBI Area. In an assembly marked by the need for real protection, the union has appointed Borja Llorente to lead this space, who will be in charge of channeling complaints, training delegates and ensuring that diversity is a right respected in each company in La Rioja.
The barrier to job search in La Rioja
The creation of this area responds to a reality that the new person in charge, Borja Llorente, has called “worrying”. The union warns that employment discrimination in the region begins even before hiring: 44% of LGTBI people admit to hiding their sexual orientation or gender identity during selection processes for fear of suffering prejudice or being discarded.
From this new structure, UGT will work so that job offers and interviews in La Rioja stop being an environment of exclusion and become spaces of equal opportunities.
Towards comprehensive protection of the LGTBI worker
With the constitution of this body, UGT La Rioja seeks to respond to a work environment where 75% of the workforce claims to have witnessed verbal attacks or ridicule towards the group. The roadmap of the new LGTBI Area includes:
- Direct advice: Legal and union support for workers who suffer harassment or lgtbiphobia.
- Collective Negotiation: Promotion of specific clauses in the La Rioja agreements to protect family and gender diversity.
- Focus on Trans employability: Measures to reduce the unemployment rate of the trans collective, which currently doubles the average unemployment rate.
