It is necessary that employers respect workers’ rights and provide equal treatment for all employees, while reduction and suppression of discrimination in the area or work and employment is a common goal for Commissioner for Protection of Equality and trade unions, said Commissioner Brankica Jankovic at the opening of the session of Main Board of UGS Nezavisnost, organized on the occasion of the World Day for Decent Work, which is marked this year with a slogan “Let’s invest in care about people”.
We have to regain the value of work and this should be one of our national priorities, said Jankovic. Work and employment has been an area where citizens submit the greatest number of complaints for years now and they provide an insight to the most common cases of discrimination, mostly against women but also against members of marginalized social groups – non-advancing professionally, dismissal, restricting of various employment rights, unequal earnings of women and men for the same job, Commissioner stressed. She added that trade unions must be a link between workers and employers and that their task is to advocate for the rights of employees to decent work and equal treatment.
Commissioner said that numerous activities of the institution of Commissioner for Protection of Equality are aimed to prevent discrimination at the workplace and solve particular cases. Many companies have signed “Partnership for Equality”, hence confirming their responsibility for respect and implementation of equality and non-discrimination principles, which are stated in the Code of Equality, published by Commissioner in 2017. Furthermore, thanks to our efforts, disputable provisions of the Law on Determining the Maximum Number of Public Service Employees will be amended and we also submitted and Initiative to amend the Law on Financial Aid for Families with Children.
At the opening of this conference also spoke Zoran Stojiljkovic, president of UGS Nezavisnost, while among participants were the representatives of JKSP Morava, Republic Geodetic Authority and High Medical School of Applied Studies in Cuprija.