On 1st of July BGO Gemini launched the project FLAME – Fair Labor Attitude – Measurable Equality. “FLAME – Fair Labor Attitude – Measurable Equality” Project consists of development of Equal Opportunities Code on the workplace jointly by experts and key players on the employment sphere. The project aims at empowering sexual minorities in Bulgaria and improving their position as employees. It also aims to raise awareness in the general society and the employment sector on the anti-discrimination legislation. The main target groups of the project are sexual minorities and most commonly discriminated social groups in Bulgaria. Activities also target at employers, policy makers and public authorities; human rights NGOs in Bulgaria and the general society.
The project seeks to explore possibilities for closer cooperation between the employment sphere and human rights NGOs and facilitate shared learning on the manner in which voluntary codes of antidiscrimination labor practice contribute to better workplace conditions. The project involves joint monitoring and remediation work at 10 Bulgarian companies. These joint activities will incorporate a variety of equality code enforcement methods and strategies and through this work, an extensive analysis of the outcomes, the participating groups will identify “best practices” and develop viable models for ongoing cooperation in terms of equal opportunities provision. The results will be broadly shared.
Purposely, the project includes widely disseminated information encourage active public participation in monitoring actions to combat intolerance; collecting information the type and nature of discrimination based on the stated in the Bulgarian Law for protection against discrimination grounds, specifically focusing on sexual minorities, women namely, disabilities and ethnic minorities through variety of methods; detailed assessment of the current labor conditions situation in the targeted 10 employers as to make comprehensive review of the current policies and practices as to assess the level of correspondence with the Act Against Discrimination and equal opportunities principles. Next to this, training on the Bulgarian antidiscrimination legislation and best practices will be delivered to provide for the full involvement of all involved parties (employers, employees, labor union, etc.). Strategic action plan for provision of all antidiscrimination legislative provisions will follow the training, which will be a management tool in the project implementation. The fulfillment of the strategic plan through the implementation of equal opportunities standard phase will complete final diversity audit by independent expert, who will certify that the requirements of the Bulgarian act against discrimination and the best antidiscrimination labor practices are provided and made operational in the involved in the project employers.
The project is financially supported by the Democracy Commission of the USA Embassy in Bulgaria. The duration of FLAME project is one year.