New legislation seeks to tackle discrimination

A new Act On Employment came into force in the Czech Republic in October 2004. The new measures include changes to unemployment benefit rules and tougher anti-discrimination provisions. There have been several high-profile recent cases of discrimination, notably in recruitment, on grounds such as ethnicity, religion and age.

On 1 October 2004, a new Act on Employment (no. 435/2004) came into force; at the same time, a further 54 related regulations, including the Labour Code, were amended. Act no. 435/2004 merges and amends Acts nos. 1/1991 on employment, and 9/1991 on employment and the powers of the authorities of the Czech Republic in the area of employment, which set out binding rules for all parties on the labour market.

The new Act fundamentally affects the Czech Republic's half a million unemployed people. It seeks to prevent abuses of financial support. It emphasises cooperation between unemployed people and the labour offices, motivating the former actively seek employment (for example, it allows unemployed people to earn a limited amount), while at the same time clamping down more stringently on illegal employment (ie without an employment contract). The legislation continues efforts to ease the situation of people whose age makes it difficult to find work - for example, since the law took effect on 1 October, the period during which unemployment benefit is paid out has been extended to nine months for over-50s (for younger people the period is six months) and to 12 months for over-55s.

The Act on Employment also lays down measures to prevent discrimination in employment on grounds such as race, age, sex or religion. Thus occurs mainly at the job application stage and rarely becomes public, reportedly because their victims do not try to assert their rights and are unaware of how to defend themselves. Only a few cases of discrimination were made public in 2003, when they went to court. For example, two Roma women, Viera Dunková and Renáta Kotlárová, were not recruited to jobs they applied for although they satisfied the employer’s conditions in terms of qualifications, experience etc. The courts in Prague upheld their claims of discrimination and Ms Dunková was awarded CZK 25,000 in compensation for injury suffered, and Ms Kotlárová CZK 50,000. These cases are very exceptional, though, both in the fact that the court made rulings of discrimination and in the way they were given widespread media coverage. Indeed Ms Kotlárová’s dispute with Rossmann Central Europe (RCE), the firm that was found to have groundlessly turned down her job application in 2003, was the very first of its kind in the Czech Republic (the verdict was issued on 31 March 2004).

On 1 October 2004, the daily newspaper Mladá fronta Dnes reported a case of religious discrimination. A Muslim woman , Chodija Aisha, was reportedly not given work on the grounds of her beliefs, even though she satisfied all the demands of the vacant job. The employer's justification was that 'she wouldn’t fit in with the team'. Discrimination against job candidates on the grounds of advanced age, and discrimination against women in general and young mothers with children in particular, is thought to be very frequent.

The case of a 50-year-old woman from the Beroun district hit the headlines in September 2004. She had applied for the post of lawyer at the land registry office in Beroun. In his letter explaining why she had been turned down, the director of this office, Karel Kočí, explicitly wrote that she was not suitable 'in view of the average age of the staff'. The land registry office disciplined the director for his actions. The matter was then dealt with by the Central Bohemian Regional Court (Krajský soud pro Středočeský kraj), but the court acquitted the employer. The unsuccessful job candidate then committed suicide. The court did not find the land registry office director’s actions unlawful, so the woman concern had to pay the court costs for the lost dispute, and did not even receive an apology.

Discrimination against young mothers with children is also frequent in practice. The new Act on Employment pays special attention to this area, defining which questions are not permissible in job interviews. This includes questions such as: 'Are you married? Do you have children? How old are they? Who is going to mind your children? What will you do when your children fall ill? Are you planning to get married? Are you planning to have children? When? Where does your husband work? What is your state of health? You’re not pregnant, are you?' Employers can receive a heavy fine for asking questions such as these. Should the matter come to court, the law clearly stands on the side of the candidate.

The new Act on Employment was resisted by the political opposition. The shadow minister of labour and social affairs, Alena Páralová, of the Civic Democratic Party (Občanská demokratická strana, ODS), for example, believes that the new Act will worsen discrimination. Some employers also have reservations about the Act.