LDA Culture: INIA begins labor policy campaign free of discrimination and harassment

With the inauguration of a lactation room at INIA Quilamapu, the institution linked to the Ministry of Agriculture seeks to establish a management system based on good labor practices with gender equality and project its access to the Nch3262 Standard, with the support of SernamEG, among other entities.

Chillán, November 9, 2022.- The national director of the Agricultural Research Institute (INIA), Iris Lobos Ortega, and the director of the National Service for Women and Gender Equality (SernamEG), Priscilla Carrasco Pizarro, signed a policy whose objective is to establish a work culture in INIA free from discrimination and harassment (LDA). The ceremony was held at the INIA Quilamapu regional center, in Chillán, and was attended by national and regional authorities.

“With this activity we are officially launching what we have called CULTURA INIA LDA, because we want to lay the foundations to be a better institution, friendlier, more inclusive and with a gender focus,” said Iris Lobos. “In addition, we seek to project access to the Nch3262 Standard, to establish substantial changes with gender equity in the organizational culture and to be able to provide more friendly work environments for agricultural workers,” added the director of INIA.

The foregoing implies progressively improving the working conditions of the staff, based on six areas of action: inclusion; working environment; Gender approach; Reconciliation of work, family and personal life; psychosocial risks and mediation of labor conflicts.

“We are very happy about this invitation from the Institute of Agricultural Research and we appreciate their interest in establishing an internal policy with a gender perspective. This shows us that the promotion of good labor practices with gender equality that we promote from the SernamEG, is capturing the interest and commitment of different institutions, public and private. This work is essential to move towards substantive equality in our country, which considers the differences of all people and eliminates all forms of discrimination,” said the national authority of SernamEG, Priscilla Carrasco Pizarro.

Inauguration of the Breastfeeding Room

A second milestone marked the ceremony: the ribbon-cutting of the INIA Quilamapu Breastfeeding Room, the first of six nationally at INIA, and which may be used not only by the workers of the institution, but is also an extensive benefit to the families of the staff.

“INIA seeks to shorten the gaps in the agricultural world and one of them is to support the benefit of breastfeeding, so that maternity is not an impediment to developing women’s careers,” explained Michelle Partarrieu, national deputy director of People Management at INIA, who added that “that is why we have proposed to progressively implement these safe, protected and sanitized spaces and infrastructure, which allow mothers to carry out their milk extraction process in a relaxed environment and reconcile their work and family responsibilities”.

For her part, Carmen Jeldres, wife of the INIA official, Miguel Pilcante, and who as the mother of little Miguel Ángel is one of the beneficiaries, stressed that “a lactation room is essential to start raising children when you are away of the house; one feels more accompanied, for which I want to congratulate the initiative”.

Thus, the INIA LDA Culture seeks to contribute transversally to the reduction of inequalities, promoting measures to eliminate inequities, gaps and gender barriers that benefit the workers who are linked to this institution.

About INIA

The Institute for Agricultural Research (INIA) is the main agri-food research, development and innovation institution in Chile. Linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, it has a national presence and a work team of more than 1,000 highly qualified people. It executes an average of 400 projects a year around strategic areas such as Climate Change, Sustainability, Food of the Future, Emerging Technologies, and Extension and Training of Capacities, contributing to the sustainable agri-food development of the country.