The Commissioner for the Protection of Equality has submitted initiatives to amend and harmonize several regulations with the aim of fully equalizing the position of female entrepreneurs and women engaged on the basis of contracts outside of employment with the position of women employed by an employer, given that they do not have equal rights during pregnancy, maternity leave and leave from work for childcare. The initiatives have been submitted to the ministries responsible for labor and employment, family care and demography, and economy and finance.

The same life event (pregnancy and childbirth) is in question, which is why there should be no difference in the rights of women in fully comparable circumstances. Also, this discourages and weakens female entrepreneurship, self-employment and makes their position on the labor market more difficult during a very demanding and sensitive period of life. The Commissioner emphasized that women should not be treated differently during pregnancy and childbirth depending on the type of work engagement, i.e. regulations should not favor only one form of work engagement, namely employment with an employer, in comparison to other forms of work engagement (work outside of an employment relationship, self-employment, entrepreneurship).

A Commissioner’s analysis of the regulations and practice has shown that women entrepreneurs and women who are engaged under various types of contracts outside of an employment relationship receive benefits based on the birth and care of a child and special care of a child that do not include the payment of taxes and contributions, while when it comes to a woman employed by an employer, the state pays these taxes and contributions in addition to her salary. In addition, current legislation does not guarantee women who work under contracts outside of an employment relationship the same rights as women employed by an employer; they do not have protection from overtime, night work, work redistribution, vacation, sick leave, etc., although they should have them according to the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia and ratified conventions.

These amendments require the harmonization of several laws, including the Labor Law, the Law on Financial Support for Families with Children, the Law on Contributions to Mandatory Social Insurance, the Law on Personal Income Tax, the Law on Health Insurance, the Law on Companies, and the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance, which is why the initiatives have been sent to the ministries responsible for proposing these regulations, the Commissioner concludes.