Homophobia costs engineering £11.2bn a year

Billions of pounds are lost in the UK every year due to active homophobia in the workplace, according to a new study.

The report, conducted by Conservative MP Alec Shelbrooke and Dr Mark McBride-Wright, Co-Founder of InterEngineering, found that anti-gay bullying was having a severe and profound effect on the engineering industry, amounting costs of £11.2 billion every single year. LGBT employees within the sector felt under pressure from outdated stereotypes, with over half of them claiming that this fear caused them to remain “in the closet” at work.

33% of gay engineers interviewed said that their sexuality had prevented career progression. Shelbrooke, a former mechanical engineer himself, claimed that he hoped this report would show how the sector needs to be “transformed through proactive, educational teamwork and leadership.”

He continued: “Companies that have adopted such an approach have seen up to a 30% increase in productivity from openly LGBT employees as a direct result of a happier and more cohesive workplace.”