The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) and Procon-SP requested information from the LinkedIn platform about the exclusion of an advertisement for a job vacancy, made by the Center for Analysis of Freedom and Authoritarianism (Laut), in which preference would be given to candidates blacks and indigenous people.
According to the MPF, the platform’s decision contradicts efforts made in Brazil to include minorities through affirmative action, and LinkedIn must clarify which rule guided the removal of the ad, detailing its legal grounds, within ten business days. from March 23.
LinkedIn is a social network aimed at the job market, where users share professional information, while companies can advertise job opportunities.
“The Federal Supreme Court understands these measures ‘not only as historical reparation in favor of subaltern groups, but as a way to prospectively benefit the whole of society, through the construction of more plural and less excluding spaces’. The country is also a signatory to treaties and conventions that encourage inclusion and the provision of opportunities for individuals and social groups who are victims of discrimination and intolerance,” the MPF said in a statement.
Asked by users about the withdrawal of the ad, on Twitter, the LinkedIn platform replied that its policies are applied consistently to all users and that it is asked that “the vacancies do not specify preferences or requirements related to individual characteristics, such as age, gender , religion, ethnicity, race or sexual orientation”.
Procon-SP reported that the company should present until today (24) information such as: whether there is application of specific policies that guide publications and how advertisers are informed of them and in which situations there is an eventual exclusion of ad already published.
The rector of Faculdade Zumbi dos Palmares, José Vicente, assesses that affirmative policies “are indispensable above all in a country marked by exclusion, racial inequality and above all by the manifest intensity of racism in social relations and in labor market relations”.
“In any country, they [políticas afirmativas] they are important to guarantee representation, plurality and diversity, and in a country like ours, which is traditionally excluding due to structural racism, it is indispensable. Without them, we will continue with the same scenario that we have today, that is, 54% of the black population and you do not have blacks in the companies”, he added.
He also assessed that the role of the MPF and Procon is essential in situations like this. “Because those who have the tools, the competence and also the legal reserve to be able to carry out an intervention of this nature are precisely Procon and the Public Ministry. Without the institutions to implement these actions, the law is insubstantial, you can even effectively identify the aggressor, but [sem as instituições] cannot punish, cannot ultimately hold him accountable.”
THE Brazil Agency looked for LinkedIn to comment on what happened, but still got a response.
Racism in companies
Specialists participating in the Diversity and Equity Seminar in the IT Sector in Brazil: Perspectives on Work and Digital Inclusion, held at the beginning of the month by the Internet Management Committee in Brazil (CGI.br), pointed out racism as a barrier to diversity and equity in companies.
The president of the Geledés organization and post-doctoral fellow in Ethnic-Racial Diversity at the University of São Paulo (USP), Antonia Quintão, pointed out that, in the organizational environment, there needs to be a paradigm shift and that all employees, especially those who decide, interview, select and hire, reflect on social relations in Brazil and on their own prejudices.
“It is important that companies clearly define their objectives, that they prepare plans, that they establish goals, this will not happen spontaneously”, he said at the time. According to her, it is necessary to deconstruct the prejudices of structural racism and invest in the capacity of black youth.
Asked about the main challenges to be overcome for the participation of Afro-descendant women and others socially excluded specifically from technology, the doctoral student in Computer Science at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS), with a focus on Diversity Management, Biamichelle Miranda pointed out racism.
“Racism will dictate the issue of our education, the delay in our education, and that is why we talk about quotas, racism will dictate why we are so few within the IT area because it is not from now”, he said. .
THE Brazil Agency requested a positioning from the LinkedIn platform, but received feedback until the report was completed.
