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Discrimination and the Roma community, 2015
The labour counsellor called several times to set up an interview (she had previously explained who we
were and what we do). She said that she had two candidates that matched the professional profile he
was looking for. In the end he said that he couldn’t even call them in for an interview because: “I can’t see
myself getting into a car with Gypsies. If my boss saw me he would fire me. They have a reputation for
being delinquents and drug users”. Our candidates were therefore excluded from the recruitment process
because they are Roma.
This is a clear case of discrimination based on or motivated by negative prejudices and stereotypes towards
the Roma community.
19.
Mérida.
Employment.
Direct discrimination.
During a visit to a company, the FSG labour counsellor was in-
formed by someone from the HR department that the directors of the company where we were trying to set
up a programme had orders to not hire Roma.
The Department wanted to call a meeting with the director of the company to tell him of positive labour market
integration cases involving Roma in different companies in Merida in order to establish trust in our services.
In the end it was impossible to set up a meeting.
20.
Mérida.
Employment.
Direct discrimination.
A Roma girl from Merida told us she was dismissed from her job
for being Roma. She was not happy with her dismissal which the company alleged was for other reasons.
The girl based her complaint on being dismissed because she is Roma.
She told us that she knew that the authorities would not recognise wrongful dismissal for being Roma.
21.
A Coruña.
Employment.
Direct discrimination.
The enterprise mediator and the coordinator of the Coruña
office of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano met with representatives of a company to present the Acceder
Programme and, more specifically the Learning by Doing project. The meeting was with the person responsible
for human resources and the head of the box section and was held on company premises.
After the presentations and an overview of the Acceder programme, the HR chief said that he was not interested
in collaboration (for now) as he did not want Roma interns. He claimed that the supermarket for which he is the
head of HR is situated close to the Palavea neighbourhood and the Conservera Celta shanty town and that many
Roma families come by and their behaviour and hygiene leave a lot to be desired giving rise to many complaints
from other customers. He also pointed out that in another town (Ferrol) they hired a girl (not Roma herself but
married to a Roma person) as a cashier and had a negative experience (he mentioned a specific episode that he
believed caused a conflict). He argued that if they had a problem with a Roma person, that would reflect on “the
entire community” and the problem would only get worse.
The FSG team from the Coruña office present at the meeting refuted a number of his negative comments about
the Roma community as a whole and tried to make him understand that he was judging an entire group based
on isolated cases. They also stressed the value of the programme they were presenting. We believe that his
attitude was discriminatory. He did not want to collaborate with the FSG solely because we work with Roma. He
did not want to give them an opportunity and reinforced negative stereotypes.
Moreover, he insisted that he had no problem with working with other disadvantaged groups such as people
with disabilities or immigrants, a common practice in his company.
In this case it was the stereotypes and prejudices towards the Roma community that kept him from collaborat-
ing in improving the employment possibilities of Roma.