Equality at Work Commission slams US letters to companies as “unacceptable”

The president of Portugal’s Commission for Equality in the Workplace (CITE), Carla Tavares, has criticised the mail drop of letters sent out by the US Embassy in Portugal to companies telling them to drop diversity programmes as “unacceptable interference”.

The letters were sent out to companies in Portugal in recent months supplying goods and services to the US, informing them that they should scrap their Diversity, Equality and Inclusion programmes.

“They are an unacceptable interference in the internal policy of countries and the European Union”, she said, adding that she was worried about this sign of backsliding on human rights.

“CITE views this step and everything it represents with great concern. It represents not only an unacceptable interference in the internal politics of third states, but also of the European Union itself,” she told the online news source ECO.

“Moreover, even more serious is what it means. This kind of attitude is nothing less than a backwards step regarding all the conquests on human rights achieved in recent years”, she warned.

“This is the moment for the European Union and its Member States to stand firm in affirming their values of defending human rights and in combating all forms of discrimination,” said the president of CITE.