How to Protect LGBTQ+ Staff While on the Move

Alistair Kent | 12-07-2019

You can choose your holiday destination, but you often have little say about where you travel for work. In some countries in the Middle East, for example, migrant workers have been tested to determine their sex and in 2013, the Gulf Cooperative Countries, which includes countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and UAE, announced plans to ban LGBT foreigners from entering Gulf countries. The proposal was later dropped partly because of fears that it would jeopardise Qatar’s World Cup bid.

 

With the need for business travel on the rise, duty of care – an employer’s moral and legal obligation to ensure the safety or wellbeing of its staff – has received growing attention over the past few years. In the climate of increased globalisation, combined with mounting geopolitical and environmental issues that could affect travellers, there is now a better understanding of the topic by those in charge of travel.

 

 

In this article at Personnel Today, we look to examine this crucial area of duty of care and explore what can be done before, during and after business trips to ensure that any employee can remain happy and safe while travelling for business. This includes:

  • Pre-trip briefings
  • Open and accessible communication channels
  • Connections to accommodation and travel, allowing visibility to the TMC or travel manager
  • The importance of travel and HR working in tandem – in as sensitive a manner as possible
  • The important work of broader advocacy networks

 

It’s a vital area of duty of care which is rightly becoming more prevalent for forward-thinking travel managers.  Just as important is the balance struck between safety and equality; sexual orientation shouldn’t impact the opportunities that someone has at work.

 

An employer’s duty of care towards staff travelling abroad will continuously evolve as laws change internationally, and it will need to be part of wider business policy that senior leadership must buy into. The risks of not looking after its most valuable resource – its people – can have serious consequences for both employers and individuals.