No. 07-00-156/2015-02 date: 7 July 2015

OPINION

The opinion was issued in the procedure following a complaint filed by М. Ј. from B. against a decision of employer “Т. S.” а.d. B., which prescribes conditions for an incentive of the employees, that it, conditions that only the employees who turn 65 next year may apply for an incentive as well as those who have minimum 15 years of pensionable service. In the declaration was stated that the interest of company “Т. S.” was to improve personal, professional and age structure of the employees, and that one of the ways was to stimulate the voluntary leave of certain categories of the employees who have an opportunity to remain employed for a longer period of time, by exercising the right to one-off payment. In the course of the procedure was determined that “Т. S.” а.d. B. adopted a Decision on conditions and criteria for stimulating voluntary leave from “Т.S.” а.d. B. which defined the right to stimulate voluntary leaving from the company in case of the employees who in 2015 fulfil the condition for old-age pension, and prescribe an exception for the employees who in 2015 turn 65 and have minimum 15 years of pensionable service. “Т. S.” а.d. provided a possibility for a certain category of the employees to leave the company by taking certain incentives, that is, by offering financial incentives, in order to achieve the objective that best suits the needs and material possibilities of the company. Considering the fact that “Т. S.” а.d. has limited financial resources and that it has no financial interest in providing incentives to the employees who will, by force of law, definitely retire until the end of the current year, the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality stated that, in this specific case, there is a proportion between the prescribed measure and the objective achieved with this measure. For this reason, an opinion was provided that company “Т. S.” а.d. B. did not violate the provisions of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination by determining criteria and conditions in the Decision on conditions and criteria for stimulating voluntary leaving from “Т. S.” а.d. B, No. 106148/3-2015 dated 24 March 2015.