Latvia to ban discrimination in employment
Today the Social and Employment Committee of the Latvian Parliament, passed in the second reading an amendment to the Latvia’s Labour Law explicitly banning sexual orientation in employment.
Latvia is still the only EU member state which did not comply with the EU directive 2000/78/EC requiring member state to explicitly ban sexual orientation discrimination in employment.
The Parliamentary Committee rejected a proposal from the Latvia’s First Party to delete words ‘sexual orientation’ from the draft. Jānis Šmits from the First Party said that until last July (the first LGBT Pride March) when in his words sexual minorities have started ‘imposing their persuasions in an aggressive tone’ Latvia was a very loyal and tolerant country.
However the Parliamentary Committee supported a proposal from the First Party that will allow religious organisation to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation when person’s ‘views and persuasions’ will not conform the teaching of religious organisation. Such proposal was also supported by representatives of various denominations who attended the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee.
The First Party of Latvia, popularly known as ‘preachers’ party’ began their intensive homophobic campaign last July around the first LGBT Pride March in Riga and since proposed a constitutional amendment to define marriage as union of a man and a woman and explicitly stated they want to ensure Latvia never recognises any form of same-sex partnerships. The constitutional amendment already passed two reading with overwhelming supports from Latvian MPs and is very likely to be adopted in the third and the last reading.
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