OPINION

The opinion was issued in the proceedings regarding the complaint of AA. from B. against the Ministry of Internal Affairs, B. B, advisor to the minister, and V. V, Assistant Minister and Head of the Department for Emergency Situations. In the complaint, it stated that the adviser to the minister refused to give consent for the professional development training of the complainant at the training “Basics of safety in contact with explosive objects” in the period from September 16 to 29, 2019, in Moscow and that she asked the Head of the Department for Emergency Situations to remove the name of the complainant from the list of employees for this training. It was further stated that the Head of the Department followed the order of the advisor to the minister and drew up a new document with the proposal of the employees without the name of the complainant, to which the advisor to the minister gave her consent. In the statement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it is stated that the Minister’s Cabinet gave its consent to the proposal of the Head of the Department for Emergency Situations, as well as that the decision not to include the complainant on the list of employees for the “Basics of safety in contact with explosive objects” training was made at the level of the Department for Emergency Situations, and not at the level of the Cabinet. In the statement of the Head of the Department for Emergency Situations, it was confirmed that the decision not to include the complainant on the list of employees for training was made at the level of the Department and for the sake of organizing a smooth work process, considering that some of the employees were engaged in other trainings during the training period, some were using their right to annual leave, while the complainant was on training within the Ministry in April 2019 and used four days of unpaid leave in September. During the proceedings, it was determined that the Ministry of Internal Affairs proved that the Minister’s Cabinet gave its consent to the proposal for a decision on employees for professional training “Basics of safety in contact with explosive objects,” as well as that the decision not to send the complainant to this training was made at the level of the Department for Emergency Situations, not at the level of the Minister’s Cabinet. Based on the established facts and circumstances and applying the rules on the burden of proof, during the proceedings it was also established that, in addition to the statement of the Head of the Department for Emergency Situations, no evidence was submitted that there was a justified reason for the complainant not to be sent to this training, nor any evidence disputing the existence of a causal relationship between the complainant’s membership in the trade union and the decision not to send him to vocational training. Due to all of the above, the Commissioner gave the opinion that by not sending the complainant to the professional training “Basics of safety in contact with explosive objects” in the period from September 16 to 29, 2019, in Moscow, the Ministry of Internal Affairs put the complainant in a disadvantageous position based on a personal characteristic – membership in a trade union organization, which violated the provisions of Arts. 6 and 16 of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination and Article 18 of the Labor Law. Due to all of the above, the Commissioner gave a recommendation to the Ministry of Internal Affairs that in the future, when selecting employees for training to acquire and improve knowledge, skills, and attitudes, the selection of employees should be made based on objective criteria and the expressed needs of organizational units, without making unjustified distinctions between candidates based on their actual or assumed personal characteristics, as well as to organize a training at the level of heads and managers in the Department for Emergency Situations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the topic of discrimination and protection against discrimination in the field of work and employment.

COMMISSIONER FOR THE PROTECTION OF EQUALITY

Brankica Janković