Expert Meeting 2019

In many countries, regulations that protect equal access to work have been proliferated, sometimes with a special focus on certain identity groups that have suffered historical discrimination or minorities with risk of discrimination.

On the other hand, “identity” institutions based on ethical and religious principles and values (NGOs, schools, universities, hospitals, community centers, think tanks, religious organizations, etc.) coexist in plural society and claim their right to include as a criterion for hiring and working in the institution, respect – and sometimes conceptual and even existential adherence – to certain values, which – following their founding statutes – they consider essential for the development of their mission and activities.

Also, in recent years, the social trend that demands companies a commitment to values ​​beyond the lucrative logic has been gaining strength, requesting consistency between the declared values, the concrete practice and their participation in current debates, also in relation to employees, collaborators, sponsors and suppliers.

These movements regularly produce conflictive cases that have reached or end up reaching national and international courts. In this frame, with due respect for the freedoms of association, expression, research, teaching and religion, there is in many cases a statist idea that mistrusts private activity and leads to national and supranational over-regulation; a secular perspective that looks at religion as a disruptive element, thus suspecting its ability to respect the rights of citizens; and certain social and legal ambiguities that in some cases exalt the right to private and family life, and in others enable state and judicial intervention in those same fields.

In this context, civil society maintains its dynamism: the complexity set a perfect time for thinking, especially by Christian-inspired institutions.

External hostility can lead to confrontation to recover or maintain threatened spaces of autonomy, or to build a closed security environment that leads to isolation. In both cases, there is a risk of rejecting the dialogue: on one sideit would be exchanged for the conflict and, on the other, it would be canceled by withdrawal. A third possibility is the loss of identity grant of own principles to agree with other people’s standards. Faced with these monological possibilities, the institutions of defined identity are called to care for and project their mission, which is the source of their value and wealth proposition for plural society.

The purpose of the expert meeting, which took place in Madrid at the end of March 2019, was to reflect on these issues from different perspectives, in order to enrich the debate and offer practical knowledge for “trend” institutions or those based on ethical ​​and religious values, on the legal and organizational challenges existing in this field.

Faced with this great debate, Intermedia Social Innovation has organized the first Expert Meeting of the Cultural Mediation and Social Affairs Project, with the title: “Labor relations in institutions of Christian identity”. Ángel Gómez Montoro (Universidad de Navarra, Spain) was the academic director and Juan Pablo Cannata (Universidad Austral, Argentina), the coordinator of the organizing committee.

Specifically, the question was raised about the legal implications of associating an employment contract with a mission statement based on moral and religious principles, and the criteria to be followed in case of a conflict between the mission statement and the behaviors or attitudes of the different types of workers. From a multidisciplinary perspective, with 14 presentations and seven colloquia, 20 academic and professional observers discussed good practices in talent management, the performative and inspiring function of the mission statement in educational and care centers, the challenges of communication and public opinion, and the main legal currents in various courts and legislative areas.