We invite you to read the article in Diario Financiero, where our partner, Jorge Arredondo, commented on the paths that the Karin Law opens to promote inclusion and labor equity.
The focus of the regulations on the gender perspective makes it possible to address inequalities and bring about a cultural change, which should encourage greater inclusion of women and minorities in the workplace.
In addition to incorporating new legal definitions of harassment and violence in the workplace, Law No. 21,643 explicitly incorporates the gender perspective in labor relations, which can have an impact, for example, on workforce indicators.
For Jorge Arredondo, lead partner of Albagli Zaliasnik’s Labor Group, although the focus of the law is to protect workers in their work environments, “it would be excellent” the externality that it could bring, in terms of continuing to advance towards equity in the labor force, in a country where participation rates, as of June of this year, stood at 72% for men and 52.8% for women, according to INE figures.
This regulation ‘will force companies to review and consider whether there are social constructions of gender that affect people differently in the workplace and that may affect women and minorities in a deeper or more habitual way’, says María Fernanda Espinosa, labor partner at Barros y Errázuriz, adding that by increasing awareness of inappropriate behaviors and eradicating them, healthier and safer work environments will be achieved and, therefore, inclusion will be promoted.
For María José Moreno, head of Human Resources at SCM Latam, the gender perspective also plays a key role in terms of the legal margin, because ‘the specific classification of what is considered harassment, sexual harassment and violence in the workplace will not leave “gray areas or margins in which to negotiate”, which guarantees safe spaces and a legislative framework that supports them, in the event that women’s limits are transgressed.
Nowadays, many work environments are hostile, violent and denigrating for many people who work day by day being victims of behaviors that are culturally normalized and that especially affect women and diversities’, says Macarena Molina, leader of Talent and Culture of Zenda by Defontana, who agrees that the new law promotes the creation of safe spaces and invites not to make invisible the realities that women and diversities live.
On the implementation of measures to ensure that power dynamics do not impede transparency in the execution of the norm, Espinosa states that the legislation covers ‘quite well’ the different fronts, forcing the development of a prevention protocol, take actions aimed at prevention, have adequate channels of complaint and investigate.
