EFAF reports waning discriminatory practices at workplaces

The Equality For All Foundation Jamaica (EFAF) is reporting that more organisations are becoming more tolerant of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) employees.

After an explorative case study on the employment of LGBTQ+ people in the Jamaican business process outsourcing (BPO) industry was conducted, with the participation of 71 individuals across the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew, Clarendon, St Catherine, Hanover, Manchester, St James and Westmoreland, 72 per cent of the respondents agreed that the BPO culture had changed to be more inclusive.

The study highlighted that many developed countries increasingly recognised the need for a diverse workforce and were implementing the necessary protocols to achieve this.

As a result, the EFAF is lobbying for all local organisations to consider these global trends and execute the comprehension of the unique experiences of their LGBTQ+ employees through policy.

“Therefore, to position Jamaica, as an attractive location to live and do business, local public firms and other private sector organisations will eventually need to dismiss their archaic traditions, discriminatory beliefs and hiring dogma that have deliberately hindered the engagement of the LGBT community in our region,” the research stated.

The case study found that some LGBTQ+ respondents still felt as though they faced discrimination through all phases of the BPO employment cycle, including hiring, onboarding, probation, promotion (and remuneration), and termination.

However, 47 per cent agreed that the BPO offered a safe space for all employees to work.

Sixty-two per cent of respondents agreed that the BPOs had shown acceptance through the implementation of policy in contrast to the more intolerable opportunities that exist and that its written policies supported the fair treatment of LGBTQ+ persons.

Discrimination continues

Suelle Anglin, director of partnerships at Equality For All Foundation Jamaica (EFAFJ), informed The Gleaner that while there seemed to be some signs of improvement regarding the attitudes and perceptions of the LGBTQ+ employees, the group continued to face discrimination, verbal and sexual harassment and being bullied by those within the workplace.

“One of the things that we kept seeing coming up was that when it comes to workspaces in general, that there was still a level of intolerance ... and so particularly for the BPO, the kind of feedback that we got from that was very opposite from what we got from other places of employment,” she said.

The EFAF also commissioned a rapid assessment of the experiences and challenges of LGBTQ+ people in Jamaican organisations which included both public and private sector companies.

Of all the participants represented in the study, 59 per cent were in the 20-30-years-old bracket; 33 per cent were within the 31-40 years-old margin, five per cent within the 41-50 years old group and three per cent aged 51-60 years.

The respondents are employed in the industries of the BPO, health-care, banking and finance, food services, tourism, manufacturing and construction.

Anglin explained that as Jamaica still grappled with the issue of discrimination, she suspects that this high tolerance within the BPO sector was also due to the companies being international as opposed to locally owned.

These policies geared towards inclusivity and diversity, she said, filtered down into the site locations in Jamaica.

She further noted that in smaller BPOs that are locally owned there still remained some concerns. “Even if they tried to facilitate the kind of environment, they didn't necessarily have the level of in-depth and specific policy that the larger BPOs would have,” she said, adding that this resulted in higher levels of intolerance.

In the concluding arguments of the case study, the researcher expressed that while the BPO sector has been found to be less abrasive towards the community regarding the provision of a safer space for LGBTQ+ employment, “predictably there is a national need for improved education to erode existing prejudices”.

The representative continued that there needed to be “cohesion amongst sector-wide guidelines, organisational endorsements, and concrete socio-cultural incentives for change, anti-discrimination, and pro-inclusion customs”.

The rapid assessment indicated that 28.6 per cent of respondents stated that their employers' written non-discrimination policy which specifically covered sexual orientation and/or gender identity demonstrates a slowly incoming acknowledgment that within the context of Jamaica's alleged widespread homophobia, the LGBT community are noteworthy contributors to economic productivity the study said.

The assessment further recorded 45.3 per cent of the respondents who did not feel safe about being “out” about their sexuality and gender identity in their current work environments due to a persistent feeling of being unwelcome. The researcher indicated that this constant identity struggle has detrimental impacts on people's health, happiness, and productivity.

Thirty-eight per cent of respondents indicated an unwillingness to be open about their sexual orientation with neither colleagues nor superiors.

The EFAF aims to increase workplace engagement which includes sensitisation sessions. Since the start of the year, the foundation has engaged 20 private and public sector companies and has educated them on building respectable relationships with people who identify differently along with other topics.

Anglin said the response has been positive and that other companies are reaching out to the foundation to get them into the workspace to further educate staff on LGBTQ+ matters.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com