Trans women are one of the most discriminated groups when accessing employment.

Transgender people are among the most discriminated groups in terms of access to employment, especially transwomen, warned researcher Sandra Saleiro, who believes that after legislative achievement, it is necessary to invest in public policy.

In an interview with Lusa, a researcher and professor at ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa said that transgender people are one of the most discriminated groups in Portugal, and that discrimination is even more pronounced in the case of transgender women.

Sandra Saleiro, Coordinator of the National Study on LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex) Needs and Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression and Sex Characteristics, stressed that the situation worsens if, in addition to being transgender, a person has other characteristics that may be an exclusion factor, such as an immigrant, a black person, or a person with a disability.

“As this set of characteristics increases, the likelihood of gaining access to formal and decent work decreases,” the researcher notes.

According to Sandra Saleiro, “the first hurdle” is, in fact, access to employment, since often transgender people, “and again, especially trans women”, do not go beyond the interview stage.

He acknowledged that, thanks to the 2018 Self-Determination Law, Portuguese transgender people no longer face the problem of identifying them in a citizen card that does not match the gender with which they identify themselves, a reality that does not, however, not apply to foreign citizens.

However, he said that even this law cannot fully protect transgender people, noting that even before going to an interview, a person may miss the mark when calling a company to set up an interview.

On the other hand, Sandra Saleiro pointed out that gender identity has been included since 2015 in the Labor Code as one of the categories that cannot be a factor of discrimination, but stressed that there is still a large gap “between acquired rights in the law to which is a translation into people’s real life.”

Thus, the researcher argued that it was now necessary to move from laws to public policies, in which “large investments” should be made.

“If the last decade has been a decade of acquiring rights related to gender identity in legislation, then this should be a decade of investment in public policy to close the gap between acquired rights and the differentiated rights of these people,” he noted.

He added that this work should be carried out in conjunction with associations that work with the trans population, covering areas such as employment, housing, health or education.

According to Sandra Saleiro, transgender people “cannot wait” for the long-term consequences that “possible interventions” in education could have, for example, and therefore understand that “there must be measures that act immediately.”

“One way would be to include transgender people and gender identity in a range of public affirmative action measures,” he suggested, also offering training for technicians who will deal with these people in employment, for example, at the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training.

He also proposed to apply a quota system for trans people similar to that already applied for people with disabilities when accessing employment.

“There are many things you can do, the worst of which is to do nothing,” he warned.