No. 07-00-376/2017-02  Date:  5  November  2017

OPINION

The present opinion was issued following a complaint procedure initiated upon a complaint lodged by A.Ć. from B. against the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications and the association of citizens “Z.” B., on account of discrimination on the grounds of gender as a personal characteristic. In its complaint the complainant stated that the complainant had been notified by “Z.” B. association of citizens about a retraining course for a job position Јunior FrontEnd Developer and that having checked the prerequisites for attending this retraining course free-of-charge, he had learned that only female persons were eligible to attend this course free-of-charge and that this segment of the program was funded by the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications. In its declaration responding to allegations made by the complainant, the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications stated that pursuant to the Law on Associations, Decree on Program Incentives or Lacking Portion of Funds Necessary for Financing Programs of Public Interest Implemented by Associations and Rulebook on the Selection of Programs of Public Interest in the Area of Information Society Development Implemented by Associations, the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications had lodged a public tender for the allocation of funds for programs in the area of information society development in the Republic of Serbia in 2017, with an aim of promoting ICT profession among women and increasing the number of women working as ICT specialists. In its declaration the Ministry further stated that the 2016-2020 National Gender Equality Strategy defines a particular objective aimed at improving the economic position of women and their labor market status, while special measures in the area of access to utilization of modern knowledge and skills include: encouraging and supporting participation of girls, young women and women in education programs leading to skills and knowledge acquisition in professions which generate added value such as engineering and new technologies; increasing the involvement of girls and women in areas such as science, technologies, engineering and mathematics as well as supporting and promoting the achievement of women in science and technology, eliminating discrimination of women in these areas and devising measures for advancement of women in science. In addition, 2017 National Employment Action Plan, adopted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, states that women belong to hard to employ persons from particularly vulnerable categories of unemployed persons and that they need to be included in programs and measures of active employment policy in a way that would enable their integration into the labor market and improve their quality of life. Furthermore, the Ministry stated that the Constitution, the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination and the Law on Gender Equality stipulate that introduction of special measures shall not be considered to constitute discrimination. The Law on Gender Equality stipulates that introduction of special measures geared towards eliminating and preventing unequal position of women and men and aimed at achieving equal opportunities of genders, shall not be considered to constitute discrimination nor a violation of the principle of equality in rights and obligations. In its declaration, the Ministry also stated that women constitute a mere 20% of labor force employed in the area of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and that support to retraining and additional training programs for women in this area is indeed in line with everything previously presented and represents an affirmative measure aimed at improving the position of women in the ICT sector. In its declaration on allegations made by the complainant, “Z.” B. association stated that this association had applied for the public tender published by the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications for the allocation of funds for programs in the area of information society i.e. in the area of retraining and additional training programs for women in the ICT sector, and that they abided by the conditions set in the tender documentation and in the contract they had signed with the Ministry. In the course of the complaint procedure it has been ascertained that allowing for free-of-charge retraining and additional training programs in the ICT sector for women constitutes a special (affirmative) measure aimed at eliminating and preventing unequal position of women and men and geared towards achieving equal opportunities of genders in the ICT sector professions. For this reason, the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality has issued an opinion stating that by providing free-of-charge retraining and additional training programs for women in the area of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, neither the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications nor “Z.” B. association of citizens have violated provisions of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination.