As Ruta Siliņa, a representative of the Ombudsman’s Office, informed LETA, one of the Ombudsman’s areas of activity is to reduce discrimination, including in the employment environment. She explained that the aim of this study was to find out the opinion of the population about the prevalence of discrimination in the employment environment in Latvia in 2020 and to find out how the situation has changed compared to 2011.
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Siliņa informed that the data of the 2020 survey show that the majority of job seekers, when contacting a potential employer, for example, by sending a CV or meeting for a job interview, provide professional information, for example, about their education, work experience, language skills and other skills. .
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The study revealed that compared to 2011, job applicants are less likely to report about their health condition or disability. The survey data also show an increase in the level of public awareness on discrimination issues compared to 2011.
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The survey found that workers’ willingness to seek help in the event of discrimination has increased significantly. The State Labor Inspectorate was mentioned as the first possible source of assistance in 47% of cases. 11% of employees would turn to the Ombudsman’s Office, which is five percentage points more than in 2011. The other most frequently mentioned providers are the company’s management – 25%, the trade union – 18%, the court – 12% and the State Employment Agency – 10%.
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Siliņa pointed out that there are several discrimination protection institutions in the country. When a person addresses one of them, the goal of the affected party is important. The ombudsman is an alternative dispute resolution mechanism aimed at promoting conciliation, while the State Labor Inspectorate can impose an administrative penalty, a trade union can resolve a dispute within the workplace, and a court can admit discrimination and recover compensation.
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The study found that age is the main factor of discrimination mentioned by 58% of respondents. In practice, both the youngest employees and those close to retirement age have been discriminated against on the grounds of age.
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Employees believe that employers most often discriminate against employees on the basis of age, health status (disability), gender, nationality, language skills and other skills, as well as on the basis of having children in the family. Opinions on discrimination factors also differ between different socio-demographic groups, for example, women are more likely than men to believe that potential employees are discriminated against on the basis of age, health status and issues related to children.
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The study concluded that the Russian-speaking population more often emphasized nationality and language skills, while Latvians mentioned all other main signs of discrimination more often. It is also concluded that the importance of age and health status as signs of discrimination increases with the age of employees.
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The ombudsman’s inquiry also revealed that younger people are more likely to believe that employees are discriminated against on the basis of education and previous experience, as well as skin color, race and sexual orientation.
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From Silina’s point of view, the study also shows other interesting trends, for example, men are more willing to share personal information compared to women. Young people aged 15 to 24 and seniors over 65 are also generally willing to provide more information about themselves than other age groups.
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The study found that there are still jobseekers who, on their own initiative, choose to provide potential employers with personal and potentially discriminatory information about themselves, although they do not consider it necessary to do so. Such information is about a person’s age, gender, nationality and hobbies.
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A study by Janson found that 28% -30% of employers still ask family applicants about family and children, but this is significantly less than in 2011, when every second person was asked for such information. Women are increasingly being asked questions about children.
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