How the state's chainsaw can undermine trans and disability quota laws
Both regulations establish a revenue threshold for public services, which they sought to meet in 2023. However, LLA warned that they will not renew state contracts from last year.
Share
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina. Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni announced this week that they will review public employment contracts signed during 2023. It later emerged that they intend not to renew them. So far, no concrete measures have been taken. However, there are cases related to current regulations. At least 381 people entered the country under Law 27.636 on the transvestite-trans labor quota , and another undetermined number of people with disabilities entered government spheres under Law 22.431, the comprehensive protection system for people with disabilities . Both laws represent historic achievements for activists, voted in Congress, and are still in force. These populations remain on alert, fearing the loss of their hard-won rights.
J. is trans and started working at the former Ministry of Women, Gender, and Diversity of the Nation in September. She feels like she's in the eye of the storm. "Basically, what we're experiencing here is uncertainty. No one has come forward to help with the transition; the tasks we're finishing up are those left over from the previous administration. No one's given us new tasks," she says.
She's one of the 955 people who could lose their jobs in January. She knows the difficulties faced by the transvestite community when it comes to finding a new job: many of her certifications appear under her previous name, interviews are uncomfortable, her pronouns are ignored, or she's viewed with prejudice.
Most of the private sector rejects transgender employees. "This new government must recognize that we are a population experiencing structural, historical violence, which means that a large portion of us have not finished high school. We continue to suffer discrimination, directly or indirectly," she asserts. And she emphasizes: the quota is barely 1%.
Income and the law
"The Quota Law is an affirmative action measure for access to employment for transvestite, transsexual, and transgender people because their gender identity represents an objective barrier," Agustina Ponce, a transvestite activist and former undersecretary of Diversity Policies at the Ministry of Women, emphasizes to Tiempo Argentino .
He highlights that there is still a strong prejudice and discrimination against the transvestite-trans community, preventing them from developing their lives and accessing all their rights: "Not even the 1% employment quota is fully met, according to the latest monitoring."
All applications made under Law 27.636 rigorously and transparently complied with established mechanisms. "The law created a single registry of applicants to which each state agency requested profiles. People who entered the workforce did so based on the abilities they had demonstrated," she asserts. All transgender people who entered the state were interviewed for their position, after a pre-selection process from the Registry and the submission of ten profiles for each position to the requesting agency.
"We are the outgoing administration. No one from the current administration has contacted us yet, but we understand that what they are proposing is absolutely illegal. We are in daily talks with the ATE and UPCN unions," she added.
The 381 people who joined the Ministry of Women this year experience daily anguish. "And this anguish they feel is even more intensified by the circumstances of their admission, which was through an affirmative action. This objectively means that there have been no opportunities in their lives to enter formal employment. For many, this contract represents their first job."
Another sector that saw legal benefits this year was the disability sector. Unlike the transvestite employment quota, which has been in effect for two years, Law 22.431, which grants 4% of the state employment quota to people with disabilities, has been in effect since 1981. However, actual compliance is only 2%.
Gabriela Ferreiro, co-director of the social consultancy Libertate , emphasizes: "It is a positive action measure, necessary in unequal societies that seek to compensate for this historical gap and exclusion that currently results in 80 percent unemployment among people with disabilities of working age."
The first to be violated
Ferreiro points out: "If we compare the gender figures collected by the National Disability Agency , it appears that women with a Single Disability Certificate, who are of working age, have a 90% unemployment rate."
The co-director of Libertate emphasizes the need to raise awareness of the quota law, since "in contexts of recession, job cuts, and measures that undermine work and labor laws, the rights of those who already face barriers to access are always violated first."
In this regard, he recalled as a precedent that the last civil-military dictatorship eliminated a law that provided for employment quotas for people with disabilities in the private sector.
The article was originally published in the allied media, Tiempo Argentino .
We are Present
We are committed to a type of journalism that delves deeply into the realm of the world and offers in-depth research, combined with new technologies and narrative formats. We want the protagonists, their stories, and their struggles to be present.
SUPPORT US
FOLLOW US
Related Notes
We Are Present
This and other stories don't usually make the media's attention. Together, we can make them known.