As part of cooperation with journalists within the project “Strengthening Legal Aid Providers to Fight Against Gender-Based Discrimination in the Labor Market in BiH”, we bring you a text by journalist Bojan Trgić from the Micromreza portal about gender-based discrimination in employment.
Advertisements in which women are discriminated against in employment, interviews in which questions are asked about family planning, as well as dismissal from work due to pregnancy are common occurrences in the employment of women. Gender-based discrimination at work is a phenomenon that still follows women, especially in smaller communities, and the example of women in Gradiška essentially confirms this thesis.
That there is gender-based discrimination against women at work is clearly shown by the research of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Banja Luka, where it was stated that 26 percent of the reported cases of discrimination at work are gender-based discrimination. If we add to that the data from the survey in which it was stated that 76.6 percent of cases of gender discrimination at work is not reported, then we can say that the real situation is much worse.
Numerous situations have passed under the radar, such as the situation of our first interviewee, Ljubica Vujčić, who was fired at the end of last year at the company “Latonedil” from Nova Topola, near Gradiška, because her husband quit his job.
“My husband quit his job because he did not want to accept the new working conditions imposed on him by his employers at the time. Considering that I also worked in that company, he was warned that if he quit, I would also be fired. Although we have a loan, my husband thought that the new conditions should not be accepted, but we had no idea that the employers would call me and hand me my resignation.”
Vujčić claims that the employer’s explanation had an even harder effect on her as a woman.
“They literally told me that I am a good worker, that they have nothing against me, but that they are firing me because my husband quit his job, to punish him that way. I was collateral damage here, which really hurt me.”
Like most, she came to terms with this fact and went to the labor office. When we asked if she tried to sue the employer, she answered that she was afraid of losing the case, because he is a powerful man.
There are many such examples in the Gradiška area, but they are rarely willing to tell their story. Gender-based violence at work is even more pronounced among marginalized groups, as evidenced by the examples of our next two interviewees. That is how Ljubinka Radonić-Zlojutro, the secretary of the Gradiška “Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing” association, experienced an unpleasant situation with her employer when she applied for a competition for a member of her association.
Full text available at: micromreza.com
Image taken from the micromreza portal.
