Today 17 May, on the occasion of the Day against homophobia, a private company takes care of taking on the role of the politician of the moment. With an initiative that will certainly cause discussion, but in the meantime anticipates, with facts, any debate or future law regarding the recognition of the rights of same-sex couples in the workplace.
It was Ikea who burned everyone in time, which announced that the company treatments reserved for the spouses of legally married employees on the Italy network and for heterosexual de facto couples, will from now on also extended to de facto couples made up of members of the same sex.
Another nonconformist initiative by the Swedish group, therefore: after the provocative advertising campaigns (such as the spot "The very Good Fellas" with the mafia clan using an Ikea kitchen, and many other innovative ideas), this time social commitment has been transformed into a concrete gesture.
In fact, it will be sufficient to present, on the part of the directly interested parties, the family registry certificate (required by Presidential Decree 223 of 1989), compulsorily issued by the municipal offices, following a request for annotation in the appropriate registers (article 21). Gay couples will thus be able to obtain (like all other more uxorio cohabitants) permits related to family emergencies and deaths of the partner, extension to the partner of the health protection envisaged for executivesmarriage leave, permission for the birth of a partner's child, a 120 euro voucher reserved for those who get married or start a partnership and, lastly, extension to the partner of the employee discount and the use of the company car.
The initiative stems from the desire to recognize civil rights by launching a strong message, given among other things that the Swedish multinational is a founding member of Parks-Liberi e Uguali, a business association founded by Ivan Scalfarotto which aims to inclusion of people Glbt (acronym that stands for "gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender") in various professional contexts. Parks has been around for over a year and also includes other companies such as Telecom Italia, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Citi, Lilly, Il Saggiatore, Linklaters, Sixty Group, Consoft Group and Ibm among its shareholders.
But social commitment is not the only element underlying the choice, which has a more topical and detailed value than ever: according to a survey conducted by Ikea among its employees in its stores in Rome, Bologna and Catania, it is in fact it emerged that 14% of them were defined as Glbt, while only a minority (12%) expressed embarrassment at working alongside an openly homosexual colleague. But above all, diversity triumphs at Ikea: it will be for the young environment, favored by the open-mindedness of a company without prejudice and always looking to the future, but 82% of employees who participated in the survey believe that diversity must become a strategic priority for the company.
Waiting for politics and institutions to do their part in tackling and understanding issues that by now represent Italian and European social and working life, there was no need even to say it among the shelves of Ikea.
