no. 07-00-325/2023-02 date: 27.10.2023.

OPINION

The opinion was issued in the proceedings regarding the complaint filed by AA against the Clinical Hospital Center (from now on: CHC) due to discrimination based on disability. The complaint stated, among other things, that the complainant has been on dialysis since she was 11 years old, that in the meantime, she graduated from the High School of Medicine, and that she “completed an internship”. It was further stated that she applied for a job vacancy for a nurse-general technician, which CHC announced, and that she believes that she met the conditions for employment. She also stated that after the job interview, she “received information from her friend” that she was not hired, that she does not know the reason why she was not hired, and that she, therefore, believes “that they rejected her because of her disability, for which CHC knew”. In the CHC’s statement on the allegations in the complaint, it was stated, among other things, that the following conditions were stipulated for admission to employment for the post of nurse technician: secondary education, passed professional exam, license, and at least six months of work experience in the position in question, that the Competition Commission interviewed the candidates for the job position nurse-general technician, among whom was the complainant. Furthermore, it was stated that the Procedure with the criteria for establishing an employment relationship in CHC prescribes the conditions for admission to employment and the ranking of candidates for the position of nurse-technician, that Article 13 of this Procedure also establishes an adequate way of scoring candidates for employment position of a nurse-technician, within the prescribed criteria (average grades in high school, length of work experience in the profession, i.e., work after passing the professional exam in health care and the evaluation at the interview with the candidate), as well as that the Competition Commission, based on described criteria and applying tabular scoring methods, ranked the complainant in fourth place, while it was emphasized that she received zero points for the criterion “work experience in the profession”, because she did not provide proof of work experience in the profession after passing the professional exam. To properly and completely establish the factual situation, the Commissioner asked the Acting Director of CHC to supplement their statement by submitting evidence that the complainant was not hired as a nurse-technician because she had no work experience, while the complainant was asked to supplement her complaint by submitting adequate evidence of to the fact that C, in the application for the competition/with the application for the competition, submitted to the KB Competition Commission information about her work experience after passing the professional exam in the field of health care. The Acting Director of CHC supplemented the statement by submitting the requested evidence within the deadline, while the complainant did not supplement the complaint following the Commissioner’s requirements by the date of drafting this opinion. In the course of the proceedings, taking into account the submitted evidence, as well as the allegations from the complaint, statement, and supplement to the statement, it was determined that the following conditions were prescribed for the position of nurse-general technician, which the candidates must meet, namely: secondary education, passed professional exam, license, and at least six months of work experience in in the position in question. It was also established that the complainant submitted a competition application for filling the position of nurse-general technician on time. Furthermore, it was determined that the complainant submitted adequate evidence confirming the fulfillment of part of the conditions, that is, the conditions related to the acquired secondary education, passing the professional exam, and possessing a license. The Commissioner noted that the complainant did not provide the Competition Commission with evidence of work experience after passing the professional exam. Upon inspection of the copy of the scoring table of all candidates for the post of nurse-technician by the Competition Commission, it was determined that the table presented the scoring of each of the set criteria for the registered candidates for the post of nurse-general technician, among which was also the complainant, and for the criterion – work experience in the profession, it was stated that the complainant was evaluated with “0 points”. Considering the established factual situation, the Commissioner concluded that the CHC Competition Commission, when scoring the fulfillment of the criteria, ranked the complainant in fourth place solely based on awarding an adequate number of points based on the achieved average grade in high school, the conducted interview, as well as the length of previous work experience in the profession, after passing the professional exam. In other words, it was established that the CHC Competition Commission, and thus the person who finally decides on employment based on the announced competition for filling the nurse-general technician position, did not consider the disability or any other personal characteristic of the candidates when scoring and ranking candidates and making the employment decision, but rather made the abovementioned decisions taking into account facts such as the average grade achieved while attending high school, the impression left at the interview, and the length of work experience in a health institution after passing the professional exam. Therefore, the Commissioner issued the opinion that CHC, when deciding on the employment of candidates for the position of nurse-technician, did not violate the provisions of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination. On the other hand, taking into account the position of persons with disabilities, the Commissioner, using the competences from Article 33, paragraph 1, point 9 of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, in connection with Article 8, paragraph 1, point 1 of the Law on Prevention of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities, which, among other things, stipulates that provisions of laws, regulations, as well as decisions or special measures adopted to improve the position of persons with disabilities are not considered a violation of the principle of equal rights and obligations, nor discrimination, sent the Acting Director of CHC a recommendation of measures to foresee an affirmative measure for the employment of persons with disabilities during the announcement of the next competition in such a way that, in the case of equally ranked candidates, priority be given to a person with a disability.

COMMISSIONER FOR THE PROTECTION OF EQUALITY
Brankica Janković