Several NGOs involved in fighting discrimination and representatives of the public institutions in the area of labor and national minorities debated within the Socio-economic Experts Network in the antidiscrimination area (SEN)’s national workshop the issues that LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) persons, as well as ethnic minorities and migrants are facing in finding and keeping a job in Romania. The workshop took place on the 16th September in Bucharest and was organized by the Centre for Legal Resources within the project EU PROGRESS, funded by the European Commission and implemented across the EU by the ÖSB Consulting (Austria) and Human European Consultancy (Netherlands).
The topics discussed during the workshop included: obstacles faced by LGBT persons in access to employment, working conditions and welfare at work, examples of best practices. In the case of ethnic minorities and migrants the following issues have been identified: discrimination in access to employment, socio-economic impact of their discrimination (social inclusion/exclusion, social protection, economic growth, barriers to inclusion, public policies- the lack of monitoring and assessment etc), problems in the system that hinder the work in appropriate conditions. A recurrent issue is the lack of statistics on the vulnerable groups, motivated by the authorities by the fact that they are not allowed to collect personal data. This is a false claim, as the related law allows data collection on the ethnicity of someone for instance, if appropriate protection measureas are taken. The exception is allowed in order to collect statistical data for the authorities to be able to develop public polices.
Among the conclusions of the seminar was the need for cooperation with the public institutions in the area of labor in order to introduce discrimination on all grounds on their agenda, including the ground of sexual orientation, but also to train the staff to fulfill their role of controlling and fighting discrimination in employment.
The first series of the national workshops was organized in all Member States of the EU during September and October 2009. The results of the national workshops were used, as one of the information sources, for drafting the SEN synthesis report in 2009, which can be downloaded from the General Directorate for Employment: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=831&langId=en
The SEN network was set up by the two consultancy companies, ÖSB Consulting (Austria) and Human European Consultancy (Netherlands), at the request of the European Commission (EC) with the view to offering independent expertise and consultancy to the EC. In addition, the SEN experts provide the Commission with an analysis of the national situations and the developments in the policies concerning discrimination on the mentioned grounds, by drafting 2 reports annually for each EU Member, State which also cover topics on policies. Following the national workshop, the participants’ contribution will be taken into consideration in drafting the final reports.
