Commissioner for Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic presented Special Report on Discrimination in Area of Labor and Employment and a survey on discrimination at the labor market, which are produced on the occasion of 10th anniversary of our institution. She stressed that the area of labor and employment has been among the most frequent areas of discrimination according to the number of complaints for ten years now, which was the motive to conduct a special analysis that would reveal the key problems that cause violation of the right to decent work, earning and equal treatment in this area and define guidelines for appropriate solutions. This report was submitted to the National Parliament of the Republic of Serbia in December 2019.
Survey “Discrimination at the Labor Market”, which was conducted by Commissioner for Protection of Equality with support of German Organization for International Cooperation GIZ, revealed that respondents have the perception that discrimination is strongly present, according to 92% of employers, 86% of unemployed and 84% of employed. On the other hand, one third of respondents had personal experience of discrimination, in its true meaning of unequal treatment based on some protected characteristic and they stated membership in political organizations, age, sex and marital status as the main reasons.
Commissioner also presented the main recommendations given on grounds of report and survey aimed to accelerate synchronized and planned activities of many actors at the labor market – employers, trade unions and institutions. Through respecting of human rights, with special attention to vulnerable social groups, they should improve situation in the area of labor and employment, increase the standard of living for all citizens and decrease the feeling of general helplessness. The report also states that it is necessary to provide efficient control mechanisms for implementation of regulations and conducting in labor disputes, while in the same time, a model of social responsible business, inclusion, equality and non-discrimination should be promoted.
Ambassador of the Republic of Germany in Serbia Thomas Schieb said that discrimination is harmful for the country, society and economic development and that it should be suppressed, stressing the role of Commissioner for Protection of Equality.
Other speakers at the presentation were also Petar Antic from GIZ, sociologist Gradimir Zajic, director of Centre for Public Policy Research Tatjana Jakobi, Mario Reljanovic from the Institute of Comparative Law and Tatjana Prijic, acting assistant to Commissioner.
