No.07-00-122/2015-02  Date: 27 July 2015

OPINION

The opinion was issued in the procedure regarding the complaint lodged by D.S. against the Correctional Institution in S.M. where he was serving his sentence. The complaint stated that he had applied several times to be given the job of making envelopes in the Correctional Institution; however, the expert team turned him down. He believed that he was discriminated against due to his disability and age. The Correctional Institution in S.M. declared that convicts are given jobs based on their psychological and physical capabilities, professional qualifications and the Institution’s possibilities. It was stated, inter alia, that D.S. was turned down on the grounds of disability and the fact that there were persons in his section who were capable of working, in difficult financial position and not engaged in any activity, since there were more convicts than jobs to be filled. In the course of the procedure it was established that the expert team of the Correctional Institution did not assess the D.S.’s work capability in relation to the specific job of making envelopes but turned him down over the fact that he is a person with disability and of poor health. The Commissioner for the Protection of Equality issued the opinion that the Correctional Institution in S.M. violated the provisions of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination by turning down D.S.’s job application on the grounds of disability without prior assessment of his work capability in relation to the requirements of the job concerned. For this reason the Commissioner recommended that the Correctional Institution in S.M. should re-examine D.S.’s job application and assess his work capability and possibility to carry out the job concerned. On the other hand, the Correctional Institution in S.M. provided sufficient evidence that D.S. was not discriminated against due to his age since the age structure of convicts engaged to make envelopes corresponded to the age structure of convicts at the Correctional Institution in S.M.