64 / 121
62
Discrimination and the Roma community, 2015
24.
Murcia.
Employment.
Direct discrimination.
A young Roma man informed us of a discriminatory experience
he had on the Internet.
He was looking for work through the website milanuncios.com in Murcia and came across a job opening for a pig
farmer which said “Gypsies and those over age 50 need not apply”. He decided to call the contact person and
the first question he was asked was about his nationality. He felt discriminated against and powerless.
25.
Vitoria.
Employment.
Direct discrimination.
The FSG job hunter in Vitoria contacted a company where she heard there was an opening. The contact person
explained the job requirements (age 18 to 25, no studies or experience needed as the company takes care of
training and registering selected candidates as self-employed workers with salary on a commission basis) and
they expressed interest in our sending them some candidates. However, when they found out that we belonged
to the Fundación Secretariado Gitano and therefore work mostly with Roma the person said “we’re not racist but
this job entails door-to-door sales and you know what it’s like in Vitoria. My boss doesn’t want us to hire immi-
grants or people whose physical characteristics identify them with a particular group. People wouldn’t open their
door to them and they wouldn’t be able to sell anything.“” We don’t work with people with those characteristics.”
It was decided that the only thing we could do was register the case. They flatly refused to hire Roma.
26.
Jaen.
Employment.
Direct discrimination.
A group of young Roma took part in an employment training pro-
gramme organised by the Provincial Government of Jaen.
An FSG employee from the FSG’s Jaen office who was organising an interculturalism workshop discovered that
the Roma participants were being harassed by other non-Roma participants.
The young people informed him that ever since the course began, they felt discriminated against for being
Roma.
The FSG department requested that the director of the course be informed of these discriminatory incidents.
The course director spoke to all of the students on the course and asked them to change their attitude towards
their Roma classmates.
A few weeks later the FSG employee informed us that the situation had been resolved and that the course was
advancing smoothly.