RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MEASURES FOR IMPROVING THE POSITION … · 12,7% 3,4%. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MEASURES FOR IMPROVING THE POSITION OF WOMEN ON THE LABOUR MARKET IN SERBIA11 Structure

Serbia

United Nations Development ProgrammeInternacionalnih brigada 6911000 BelgradeSerbia

www.undp.org.yu

Serbia

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MEASURES FOR IMPROVING THE POSITION OF WOMEN ON THE LABOUR MARKET IN SERBIA

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Gender Equality Council Government of the Republic of Serbia

Recommendations for Measures for Improving the Position of Women

on the Labour Market in Serbia

United Nations Development Programme Belgrade, 2008


Publisher: United Nations Development Programme

Design and layout: Tatjana Kuburović

Printing: Premis, Belgrade

Number of copies: 350

ISBN: 978-86-7728-083-3

For the publisher: United Nations Development Programme Internacionalnih brigada 69 11000 Belgrade + 381 11 2040400 www.undp.org.yu

© 2007

United Nations Development Programme, Country Office in Serbia

CIP – Каталогизација у публикацији Народна библиотека Србије, Београд

331.5:305 - 055.2 (497.11)316.662 - 055.2 (497.11)

RECOMMENDATIONS for Measures for Improvingthe Position of Women on the Labor Market in Serbia. – Belgrade : United Nations Development Programme, 2008 (Belgrade : Premis). – 78 str. : ilustr. : 24 cm

Tiraž 350. – Glossary: str. 67-68. –Footnote: str. 69-78. – Bibliografija : str.65-66.

ISBN 978-86-7728-083-3

а) Запошљавање – Равноправност полова -Србија б) Жене – друштвенo-економскиположај – СрбијаCOBISS. SR-ID 149479180

The findings and recommendations contained in this research do not necessarily reflect the position of the United Nations Development Programme.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MEASURES FOR IMPROVING THE POSITION OF WOMEN ON THE LABOUR MARKET IN SERBIA4

LIST OF ACRONYMES

AP

CPN

EU

GEC

ICT

MoERD

MoLSP

NAP

NES

NGO

PRSP

UN

UNDP

Autonomous Province

Citizen’s personal number

European Union

Gender Equality Council

Information and communications technologies

Ministry of Economy and Regional Development

Ministry of Labour and Social Policy

National Action Plan for Improving the Position of Women and Promoting Gender Equality

National Employment Service

Non-governmental Organizations

Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper

United Nations

United Nations Development Program

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MEASURES FOR IMPROVING THE POSITION OF WOMEN ON THE LABOUR MARKET IN SERBIA 5

CONTENTS

Introduction 7

Indicators of the current social position of women and men in Serbia 9

Normative framework 12

Legal framework and mechanisms of protection of women’s rights on the labour market 16

Position of women on the labour market 23

Treatment of women in employment 25

Women and vertical mobility 26

Salary gap between women and men 26

Access to legal assistance, court procedures and out-of-court procedures 28

Sexual Harassment 30

Reproductive health, motherhood and parenthood of employed women 32

Self-employment and entrepreneurship amongst women 36

Women as helping members 39

The Characteristic position of women in agriculture 40


Pension rights and insurance 41

Unemployed women 42

Informal, additional and flexible forms of work 44

Position of women from marginalized social groups 45

Reconciliation of professional and family life 49

Allocation of work and relation of power within the household 49

Gender-based violence 51

Value systems and women’s readiness to work 53

Women and the “Society of Knowledge” (information and communications technologies, modern skills and knowledge) 57

Special measures for the more equal participation of women in the labour market 59

Possible steps 61

Literature 65

Glossary 67

Footnote 69


Introduction

The project “Position of Women in the labour market in Serbia” was carried out in 2006, in collaboration between the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Gender Equality Council (GEC) of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and resulted in a comprehensive analysis of the position of women in the labour market in Serbia, with a legal, economic and social perspective.

In Recommendations for Measures for Improving the Position of Women in the Labour Market in Serbia the findings of the implemented research were summarized and recommendations were formulated for the actors that shape the political strategies and implement the reform processes to improve the position of women in the labour market in Serbia. This paper first gives a brief overview of the position of women on the today’s labour market in Serbia, and then it elaborates in detail the three spheres which were the focus of this project – legal, economic and social issues and indicators – giving detailed recommendations for each sphere, based on the relevant findings of research and analysis.

The general conclusion of the findings, based on the majority of indicators, is that the position of women in the labour market has worsened since the early 1990s. The rate of economic activity of the whole population has dropped, but women have found themselves particularly disadvantaged - Serbia has the biggest


gap between the unemployment rate of men and women in the whole of Europe.

The legal framework that influences the position of women has improved since the year 2000 with the adoption of new laws and the amendment of the existing ones during the general reform process. However, there is still a lot of work to do in adopting new laws (e.g. Law against Discrimination, Gender Equality Law) and proposing amendments to more than twenty existing laws which are important from the gender equality perspective. The great-est obstacles are the insufficient speed and inefficiency of court procedures and the collection of data on the violation of women’s human rights. This paper gives specific recommendations for a set of amendments to the existing laws and principles that the Government should conform to in adoption of new laws, policies and procedures.

In the economic sphere, research shows that the unemployment rate amongst women also depends on various factors such as age, level of education, geographic location, ethnicity or disabil-ity. The long-term unemployment of a large number of women is especially concerning, as is the fact that there are a lot of women engaged in non-paid labour as “helping members”, particularly in agricultural activities. A lack of vertical mobility for women is apparent in the majority of sectors. The economic inequality between women and man is particularly visible in the salary gap which keeps increasing, and as the labour force moves more to the private sector, this tendency will continue.

All these problems require a greater effort and, in particular, improved special employment policies implemented by insti-tutions such as the National Employment Service, along with regular, independent evaluation of their activities in order to pro-vide maximum efficiency of results. In this regard, it is especially important that the state should collect data and keep gender-seg-regated records. It must also investigate phenomena such as the grey economy, the impact of which on the position of women has not yet been sufficiently researched.

Finally, reconciliation of professional and family life is particularly important, since working women still carry an un-proportional burden when it comes to taking care of the children and other dependent family members (the eldrely and the disabled per-


sons). Violence against women also influences their physical and emotional wellbeing, and lessens their ability to participate equal-ly in the labour market. In order to achieve this goal, the Govern-ment of the Republic of Serbia should undertake the appropriate measures, such as providing all-inclusive child care services and other services, providing flexible forms of employment and pro-moting modern values related to the position of women in the labour market.

As part of reform efforts, the Government should support new institutions for gender equality at the national, provincial, region-al and local level. It is necessary that the Government’s efforts be supported by other institutions, international and national donors, trade unions, NGOs, academic institutions, etc.

Indicators of the current social position of women and men in Serbia

Serbia faces a major challenge of how to improve gender equality in the labour market, as is clearly shown by the following statisti-cal indicators.

Rates of employment, unemployment and activity

Category Women Men

Employment rate1 44% 63%

Relation between the unemployment rate of men and women2 1,5 1

Persons looking for a job for more than 10 years (2004)3

13,2% 6,8%


Professional status – Structure of employees according to their occupation in 20044

Category Women Men

Legislators, officials and managers 2,3% 4,5%

Experts 10,1% 8,1%

Professional associates and technicians 27,4% 15,3%

Highly qualified and qualified workers 28,0% 39,3%

Semi-qualified and non-qualified workers 8,9% 10,9%

engaged in agriculture 23,0% 21,8%

Other 0,2% 0,1%

Professional status – Structure of employees according to their professional status in 20045

Category Women Men

Independent – with employees: owner or co-owner of an enterprise – company

1,0% 2,9%

Independent – with employees: owner or co-owner of a shop, household, medical surgery, attorney’s office, etc.

1,9% 3,5%

Independent – without employees 10,4% 22,6%

Employed workers 74% 67,6%

Helping members of the household (non-paid labour)

12,7% 3,4%


Structure of the agricultural population according to gender in 20046

Category Women Men

Agricultural workers 29,8% 70,2%

Helping members in agriculture (non-paid labour)

74,3% 25,7%

Care for the family members

Category Women Men

Persons that voluntarily left their job for family resons (2004)7

12,1% 3,4%

Persons that were absent from work during the previous week due to maternal leave or child care (2004)8

29,9% 0,0%

Parental leave Men

Number of men that used the parental leave in order to take care of their child since 20059 15

Salary gap

Percentage of difference between the average payment of men and women per hour of work (Unadjusted gender pay gap) in 200410

16%


Property ownership11

Category Women Men

Ownership of registered buildings 29.7% 70.3%

Ownership of registered apartments, business premises, garage

42.7% 57.3%

Ownership of registered land holdings 31% 69%

Ownership of cars 7.8% 92.2%

Normative Framework

The legal system related to the labour market is fragmented and inefficient, and there is a gap between the normative framework and practice.

Ratified international legal standards mean that the state is duty-bound to treat all its citizens equally, without discrimination based on any criteria, including gender. If gender equality does not exist in practice, the state must undertake further concrete legal mea-sures in order to achieve actual equality. Serbia has made some positive steps in improving gender equality protection, by adopt-ing the following legislation: The Constitution of the Republic of Serbia (article 15 on gender equality); The Labour Code from 2005 which regulates direct and indirect discrimination, sexual harass-ment, protection, measures of affirmative action and court pro-tection; The Law on Civil Servants from 2005 (article 11 on equal opportunities), The Law on Employment and Insurance against Unemployment from 2003 (article 8 on equal treatment, availabil-ity of employment, and prohibition of discrimination); and The Law on Prevention of Discrimination against Disabled Persons from 2006 (articles 21-26 on discrimination in employment).

The following regulations in the social policy sphere have increased equality in the treatment of the citizens: The Law on Pension and


Disability Insurance from 2003, The Law on Health Protection from 2005, The Law on Health Insurance from 2005 and The Law on Financial Support to Families with Children. Finally, there are a number of regulations that do not regulate the sphere of labour and social policy, but are nevertheless important for gender equality, such as: The Family Code from 2005 which makes signifi-cant improvements to the treatment of married and non-married partners and their children, The Law on Public Information from 2005 (article 38 prohibits discrimination and hate speech), The Law on the Basis of the Educational System (article 45 on dis-crimination norms) and regulations that govern the tax and credit policy, entrepreneurship and economic activities12.

Unfortunately, the existing criminal and civil legislation, which plays a key role in the application of all the abovementioned laws, does not foresee special provisions regarding discrimination law-suits, which is why they are almost completely non-existent.

According to the Labour Code, the sanctions for discrimina-tion include financial penalties13 and prohibition of all business activities. The Criminal Code, however, does not mention gender discrimination in particular, but foresees the legal offence of vio-lating equality in labour relations, which can incur a sentence of 3 to 5 years imprisonment14.

Conclusions

Although there are plans, strategies and political measures for improving gender equality in Serbia, many of them have yet to be put into practice; some gender equality mecha-nisms have been established, but, in most cases, without finance from the budget. Some believe that many of the newly founded institutions were only established for the process of joining the European Union, and not for the wel-fare of the citizens of Serbia.

Many state agencies, ministries and local authorities still do not have budget funds to cover implementation of gender equality measures15. The draft of the National Action Plan for Improving the Position of Women and Promoting Gen-der Equality (2008-2012) recommends the introduction of a gender sensitive budget16.


There is a concern that, in the process of state administra-tion reform, there will not be sufficient allocation of funds for new obligations and strategies related to gender issues, especially in the National Strategy for Sustainable Develop-ment17.

For now, the law does not oblige the local authorities to es-tablish local gender equality mechanisms.

There is not enough coordination between the gender equality bodies and other relevant bodies dealing with gender issues at regional and national level, due to the overall lack of capacity18.

There is no agency empowered to monitor the position of women in all its different aspects.

Data collection by state authorities is rarely gender-seg-regated. There is a need to promote E-Government (elec-tronic administration, networks and information systems) at national and local level, including the need to introduce a gender component in all the state’s forms19.

It is impossible to efficiently monitor the labour market key indicators and the effects of the special measures, due to the following shortcomings in the records system20:

i. lack of data on official and unofficial employment;

ii. lack of data on employment of women over 45 years of age;

iii. lack of detailed data on the labour force according to the type of settlement (urban and rural areas);

iv. lack of up-to-date data on monitoring the labour force, which would allow a better application of ac-tive measures on the fluctuations in the labour mar-ket;

v. lack of a survey on the labour force done on a larger sample;

vi. unavailability of this data to a wider public.


There is a general lack of coverage of all the gender equality mechanisms in the media and public, and there is a need to raise awareness on the gender discrimination problem.

Although many laws have been adopted and amended, there was neither enough implemented analysis of their possible effects on the position of women on the labour market, nor evaluations after the adoption of these laws21.

Recommendations

To establish an office for support to the work of the Gender Equality Council and to widen the scope of action in the state administration sphere. To provide additional resourc-es for capacity building in the Council in order to employ experts who would monitor different aspects of the posi-tion of women.

To adopt a Gender Equality Law which would oblige the lo-cal authorities to establish local bodies for gender equality. These mechanisms would monitor the gender equality situ-ation at the local level, propose measures for improving the position of women in the specific circumstances of the local community and consider individual cases of discrimination in accordance with the planned Law against Discrimina-tion. The Law would also oblige both the Government and the local authorities to support coordination between the local bodies for gender equality and the bodies that deal with gender issues at the regional and the national level. The Gender Equality Law would require that all state ad-ministration bodies, Government agencies and institutions collect and provide gender-segregated data, which would be in accordance with the developmental objective of the Government about the application of E-Government.

To provide the appropriate resources for gender equality issues, including gender-based budgeting in all the institu-tions and at all levels (national and local)22 and to provide resources for implementation of strategies, especially for the implementation of NAP after it has been adopted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia23.


To provide the means for the Ombudsman’s Office to start regular work.

To introduce monitoring of gender-sensitive indicators in order to collect the information needed for a more precise forecast in the labour market and for introducing special measures for those categories of people who have difficul-ties in finding employment.

To implement systematic evaluations of the possible im-pact on the position of women on the labour market before the adoption of new laws or amendments (the mandatory regular analysis ( “impact assessment”)).

Legal framework and mechanisms of protec-tion of women’s rights on the labour market

Conclusions

Gender discrimination is mentioned along with other forms of discrimination in the Constitution of the Republic of Ser-bia and other laws from the sphere of social policy and em-ployment. However, Serbia has neither a Gender Equality Law nor a Law against Discrimination24.

Provisions of the Labour Code related to discrimination are defined well enough to give grounds to prevent discrimi-nation in all phases of employment, but they are not often applied. An employer could be sanctioned under the pro-visions of the Labour Code when an add for a job clearly states that the job requires a person of a particular gender (e.g. “a female shop assistant in a boutique”, or “a cleaning lady”). The conclusions of the focus group highlight the fact that very often employers refuse to hire a woman for a “man’s job”, and that during job interviews women are often asked about their family situation, plans to have children and other similar questions which are not directly related to their performance at work25.


The Labour Code however does not include a definition of gender discrimination. The lack of a clear definition of gen-der-based discrimination and the lack of knowledge about protection from discrimination are one of the main causes of weak or sporadic implementation of these principles26.

The Law on Civil Servants does not contain concrete provi-sions for securing gender equality in employment, career advancement and reconciliation of family and professional live. It also lacks provisions on discrimination against clients or other employees27.

Since there are no clearly defined job descriptions, women are often required to carry out different tasks which are not part of their job description28.

Discrimination at the work place is hidden, since there is no institution in charge of systematic data collection29.

There is no body in charge of gender equality with the power to deal with individual cases of discrimination and issuing of mandatory decisions30.

Access to legal procedureThe following types of legal procedure can be applied in a case of discrimination/unequal treatment:

An employee may demand damages, but they must also prove that there has been an actual violation of rights, which carries significant costs which the employee is not always willing to pay31.

A company or a person acting for a company can be held accountable for damages in an offence procedure. Article 12 of the Criminal Code also determines the possibility of a prison sentence of up to 3 years (or 5 years for more se-vere cases) for actions that have violated the principle of equality32.

In theory, employees can access legal assistance through municipal legal services33. Protection mechanisms are weak,


expensive and inefficient, and they consist of the follow-ing procedures: administrative procedure through Labour Inspection, offence procedures and regular procedures for reimbursement of damages. Court procedures are usually slow and expensive which limits their availability, especially to people from vulnerable groups.

The Law on Dispute Procedure envisages tax exemptions and free advocacy in cases related to discrimination, but only for persons with financial difficulties. In practice, the court rarely appoints a lawyer in these cases. These services are not available in all municipalities, and the employees are not qualified enough to provide support in disputes. The law forbids the participation of a third interested party as a representative in the procedure (e.g. NGOs and others). The burden of proof lies on the prosecutor rather than on the defendant. The law does not mention the possibility of using the “voluntary interrogators” (determined witnesses). There are no special provisions for procedures in cases of discrimination34.

The Law on Ombudsman foresees the appointment of four deputies to the Ombudsman, one of whom should be specialized in gender equality. He or she would instigate amendments of laws and other regulations, initiate pro-cedures in the Constitutional Court and file criminal and other reports in cases of violation of human rights. The law also allows people to file complaints to the Ombudsman in cases of violation of human rights, but only when all other legal remedies have been exhausted35.

There are several procedures that can be used in cases of discrimi-nation and unequal treatment:

Filing a complaint with the Labour Inspection is one of the more accessible mechanisms that exist. However, the law does not allow employees to initiate disputes based on first instance and second instance decisions of the Labour In-spection or the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy36 and there is no systematic data collection on these complaints.


According to the trade unions, mediation is one of the most frequently used procedures in labour disputes. Trade unions play an important role in providing legal assistance and mediation, and they take active roles in individual cas-es of mediation37. They can also take an active role in court proceedings, but only if they can prove that they have a le-gal interest. The law also allows trade unions to represent in cases of discrimination in internal procedures, in order to avoid conflicts within the company.

According to the Law on Peaceful Resolution of Labour Disputes, the Agency for Peaceful Resolution of Labour Dis-putes gives hope when it comes to fast and arbitral reso-lution of disputes related to dismissals, including cases of discrimination. The law orders the parties to pay their own expenses and this procedure will supposedly be tax-free, as in the case of labour disputes. Since this is a newly founded institution, for now there is no information about its effi-ciency in resolving labour disputes38.

Recommendations

To adopt a Gender Equality Law which covers the gender equality issue in a comprehensive way39.

To propose a new Law against Discrimination which would precisely define gender-based discrimination and which should contain provisions on appointing or establishing a body at the national and local level which would be in charge of systematic data collection on harassment and discrimination (e.g. Labour Inspection within the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy).

To amend the Gender Equality Law in order to: precisely define gender-based discrimination, transfer the burden of proof from the victim to the accused, protect persons initi-ating a discrimination procedure from victimization, define protection from mobbing, introduce provision on recon-ciliation of family and professional life40, and oblige the em-ployer to give a precise job description to their employees.


To amend the Law on Civil Servants by including a provi-sion on securing the equality of employees in employment, training, career advancement, reconciliation of family and professional life; to introduce the quota system into state bodies; to define discrimination against clients and other employees as a severe violation of relations at work.

To amend the Law on Peaceful Resolution of Labour Dis-putes in order to introduce the possibility of reconciliation and arbitration in all disputes including violation of provi-sions on gender equality. To provide adequate resources for the work of the National Agency for Mediation.

To introduce the possibility that other organizations and associations besides trade unions can represent the parties in disputes concerning discrimination on any basis.

To build capacities and to allocate additional funds to the state bodies that will implement and monitor the imple-mentation of the Gender Equality Law and to directly col-lect information for the purposes of analysis.

To organize training on gender-based discrimination for employees of the ministries and other Government institu-tions, in order to strengthen and improve new institutional mechanisms and to monitor their efficiency.

To introduce both the employers and the employees to the new system of court procedures foreseen by the Labour Code41 and to consider the possibilities for improvement of the Criminal Code’s process for cases of sexual harassment, since the experience of the women’s section of the trade union Independence has shown that until January 2006 this process was too complicated and expensive.

To amend the Law on Disputes in order to secure tax ex-emptions and determine a way of providing free legal assis-tance in cases of discrimination, health and safety at work, etc. for persons from marginalized groups; to enable inter-ested third parties to represent them (e.g. NGOs and others) and to amend Article 208 in order to include the position of


mediator; to transfer the burden of proof from prosecutor to defendant and to enable the use of “voluntary interroga-tors” (determined witnesses); to include special measures on urgency and temporary measures for cases of discrimi-nation; to define which institution should provide free legal assistance for all the cases of discrimination at work.

To amend the Law on the Ombudsman in order to have one of the Ombudsman deputies in charge of gender equality issues; to increase the powers of the Ombudsman so that they can initiate procedures for protection in cases of viola-tion of the principle of gender equality; to allow the filing of complaints to the Ombudsman even when other legal rem-edies haven’t been used (Article 25 paragraph 3); to provide access to a free legal assistance system to persons that have suffered from violation of their gender equality rights.



Position of women on the labour market

Compared to the basic indicators of the labour market in devel-oped European societies, as well as in societies that have success-fully gone through the post-socialist transformation to a market economy, the labour market in Serbia is in a worse position due to the late and difficult process of transition, both in the economic and in the general social sense. Essentially, it is characterized by a somewhat lower rate of general activity, as well as a significantly higher rate of unemployment than in the EU member states. All these trends have led to a worsened position of women on the labour market in Serbia. The statistics shows that 30% of women42

believe that they’re the losers in transition and that their status is worse than before. Finally, as many statistical data and analysis show, many women are engaged in non-paid labour which is mostly underrated, which has an influence on the relations of power both within the family and within the society43.

Conclusions

Using the data from the National Labour Force Survey, com-parative analysis of Eurostat (2002-2004) shows that in Ser-bia the unemployment rate of women is 44%, which puts it on the bottom of the list of countries included in the sur-vey, alongside with Malta and Turkey. There has been a sig-nificant drop in employment rate compared to 2002 when


it was 50.6% to 40.4% in 2006.44 At the same time the reem-ployment rate of women is less favourable when compared to the previous period, standing at 32%. During 2006, the unemployment rate in Serbia for women was 25.5%, which is one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe. Serbia also has a huge gap in unemployment rates of women and men, since the unemployment rate of women is 1.5 times higher than the unemployment rate of men (15.9%) of the working age45.

The total active population in Serbia is 51.0%, while for women it is 42.5%, which shows that of a total number of 3.8 million women, 1.9 million are inactive.

There are significant differences in the reasons for inactiv-ity between women and men. For men, the main reasons include retirement or schooling. For women with a lower level of education, the main reasons are family care and household chores, for women with medium education re-tirement and schooling, and for women with a university degree retirement46.

It is also clear that the use of time is drastically different between women and men, which is why it is necessary to carry out additional research, focused on the time spent in paid and non-paid activities, such as for example house-hold chores47.

Since there is no adequate data on labour records and em-ployment on the labour market, a law is needed to secure systematic maintenance of registers and administrative re-cords in this sphere48.

The process of privatization has led to a significant trans-fer of labour force to the private sector, which resulted in a slightly higher percentage of women (25.7%) than men (21.3%) employed in the public sector49. This data is similar to data from other East European countries. The research shows that the presence of women is higher in the public sphere, where the job positions usually have a lower status and are paid less.


Recommendations

To carry out a survey on the use of time (Time Use Surveys) in order to monitor the use of time of individuals in house-holds as well, and thus get more precise data on the differ-ence in the use of time between women and men, espe-cially time spent in paid and non-paid activities.

To adopt a Law on Labour Records and Law on Records in Employment which would be gender-segregated, in order to improve the quality of statistics on the labour market, define the records kept by the National Employment Ser-vice and secure the delivery of certain data to the National Statistics Bureau.

To secure regular monitoring and reporting on the impact of transfer to the private sector, including gender analysis.

To establish and implement program support for women that are left without a job due to the upcoming restructur-ing in the public sector (e.g. by providing a gender compo-nent in programs such as the UNDP/MERR’s Severance to Job project).

Treatment of women in employment

Conclusions Participants in the focus groups have stated that due to

their unfavourable position on the labour market they are forced to accept jobs under unfavourable circumstances, and to work without the protection of their basic labour rights (payment of health insurance, pension or disability insurance, right to sick leave, right to holidays etc.)

Recommendations

To thoroughly implement the Labour Cod,


To introduce a clear definition of gender-based discrimina-tion and to raise awareness of mechanisms of protection from discrimination.

To systematically collect data on gender-based discrimina-tion.

Women and vertical mobility

Conclusions

Women encounter significant obstacles in vertical mobility to managerial positions. Survey data from the focus groups show that there is a particular resistance towards women managers in occupations that are traditionally seen as “male” (engineers, etc.).50

Recommendations

To carry out awareness raising campaigns which would promote women who are successful managers and which would explain the importance of variety in the labour force in all its aspects.

To promote the best examples/models of women in mana-gerial positions and on executive boards from other coun-tries.

Salary gap between women and men

Conclusions

The Labour Code defines the principle of equality between women and men and supports the principle of equal pay-ment for equal work or for work of equal value. Serbia has also ratified a certain number of important international conventions on equal payment (Convention of International Labour Organization 100-1951, Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),


United Nation’s Charter on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights).51

The Labour Code guarantees equal payment for equal work, but the salary gap between men and women still exists and it cannot be attributed to differences in employees’ quali-fications or other characteristics. The income of women makes up less than 100% of the income of men in all activi-ties and occupations, except in the judiciary and manage-ment. The biggest income differences between women and men are in agriculture, forestry and water management.52

The causes of the salary gap between women and men are still not understood well enough. To date, there has been no research on the participation of women in “poor” and “rich” jobs in different branches of the economy. It is also difficult to collect data on gender differences, since state institutions, such as the Tax Administration, do not keep re-cords of taxpayers’ gender.53

Labour Inspection does not sort out data in such a way that it could show different violations of the law, nor does it col-lect data on gender-based discrimination.54

Market Inspection also does not sort out data in order to show different types of violations of the law, and does not specifically collect data on gender-based discrimination.

The Labour Code obliges all employers to draft a manage-ment structure which shows how particular jobs are valued within the hierarchy of the organization, so one of the ways of proving gender-based discrimination is to determine the differences in valuing certain jobs based on gender.55

Although the existing Labour Code defines discrimination, it allows the justification of certain types of discrimination depending on the nature of the job. Some jobs, like for ex-ample cleaning or loading cargo, are valued differently, so these two employees (women doing the cleaning and man loading the cargo) will be paid differently. Discrimination that occurs here is not obvious, so according to the law, these differences in qualification are legitimate.56


Access to legal assistance, court procedures and out-of-court procedures

Conclusions

The Labour Code designates the bodies which are in charge of monitoring its implementation – the Labour Inspection and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. However, the law does not give employees the right to instigate admin-istrative procedures based on the decisions of these bod-ies.57

The two biggest trade unions (Independence and Associa-tion of Independent Trade Unions) provide legal assistance and advocacy. Trade union Independence has opened an S.O.S. hotline for women victims of gender-based discrimi-nation.

The general collective agreement between the Govern-ment of the Republic of Serbia and the key trade unions does not contain an article referring to equal payment. The old agreement expired in September 2005, and the trade union activists claim that the principles of equal payment will be included in the new agreement, which has yet to be adopted.58

The employees are not well enough informed about the principle of equal payment for equal work, and about the new principles of protection. This explains why, up till now, there haven’t been many legal actions related to this issue. Following the recent update of the NES’s database, new data on the position of women on the labour market has been found; for example horizontal and vertical segrega-tion. It is important to state that one of the biggest trade unions has no data on discrimination related to equal pay-ment for equal work, which suggests that even these insti-tutions are not aware or well enough informed about the implementation of the principle of equality at work.59


The mandate of the Agency for Peaceful Resolution of La-bour Disputes currently covers individual labour disputes where the Agency can act in cases of illegitimate cancella-tion of a contract or violation of the minimum wages regu-lation. This mandate must therefore be expanded in order to include cases of discrimination60 by amending the Law on Peaceful Resolution of Labour Disputes.

Recommendations

To carry out research on the salary gap between women and men with special emphasis on obstacles in accessing the “poor” and “rich” jobs and branches of economy.

To amend the Labour Code so that the violation of the equal payment for equal work principle is clearly defined as a form of gender-based discrimination.

To define the equal payment for equal work principle and to include it in the Law against Discrimination which should also contain individual categories such as gender, race, etc.

To support the alternative mechanisms for implementa-tion and protection of the equal payment principle, such as the National Agency for Peaceful Resolution of Labour Disputes. To provide free legal assistance in all the legal disputes related to gender-based discrimination by giving information and advice, for example. On the same topic, to provide appropriate support for establishing legal support services at the municipal level.

To establish a system for detecting, collecting and ana-lyzing all cases of unequal payment for equal work or for work of equal value, which would enable the design of policy for prevention of unequal payment, focused on in-ternal and external factors (management structure, career advancement, employment, education, training, vocation selection, etc.)

To prepare and organize programs of training and exchange of experts and representatives of the relevant state institu-


tions and representatives of trade unions, for the purposes of capacity building and improving insight into the com-parative systems and models of efficient protection from discrimination, including the equal payment principle, and then to organize awareness raising campaigns in order to inform employees about their rights.

To amend the Law on Peaceful Resolution of Labour Dis-putes so that the mandate of the Agency for Peaceful Reso-lution of Labour Disputes can be expanded to include cases of discrimination.

To amend the Labour Code with a precise definition of dis-crimination at work - this would give grounds for keeping records and sorting out data on all violations of the Labour Code and other regulations that govern labour relations, including the prohibition of gender-based discrimination.

To secure public access to data on offence procedures and labour disputes related to discrimination against women in employment and at work.

To collect gender-segregated data on taxpayers.

Sexual Harassment

Conclusions

As with many other types of discrimination, up till now there has been no comprehensive research on sexual ha-rassment. Sources of information are fragmentary and they often relate only to specific groups of women, like students or working women. According to the Student’s Union of Serbia, about 25% of total student population know for some cases of sexual harassment in their educational en-vironment, while for example at the University of Niš 40% of students claim to have heard of a concrete case of sexual harassment.61

The Labour Inspection does not carry out systematic data collection on sexual harassment.62


Data collected from focus groups indicates that many wom-en were asked for sexual services during job interviews.63

Evidence collected by the trade union Independence shows that private support (colleagues, bosses) and quasi-legal support are the key elements for successful prevention of sexual harassment, compared to legal mechanisms, includ-ing sanctions.64

The Labour Code currently demands proof for the claim that the act of harassment was motivated by a desire to violate dignity. This means that the victim must prove the intent of the perpetrator, which is a difficult thing to do. Besides, due to the low level of awareness of the exact nature, con-ditions and consequences of sexual harassment, the courts can interpret these cases in a very restrictive manner.65

The internal mechanisms which would include financially affordable mechanisms for quick and efficient protection are not included in the Labour Code.

Before January 2006 when the new Criminal Code was ad-opted, the cases documented by the women’s section of trade union Independence showed that the procedure was too complicated and expensive. The employers and em-ployees are not familiar enough with the new court proce-dures foreseen by the Labour Code.66

Recommendations

To amend the Labour Code so that:

i. it includes sexual harassment as a form of gender-based discrimination

ii. it contains a provision on sexual blackmail

iii. it reflects the current EU principle of transferring the burden of proof from victim to perpetrator

iv. it ensures the necessary systematic data collection on cases of sexual harassment.


To secure a system of providing legal assistance, mediation and other forms of support to the victims of sexual harass-ment.

Reproductive health, motherhood and parenthood of employed women

Conclusions

The Labour Code guarantees special protection for women during pregnancy and after giving birth, as well as mater-nal/parental leave for parents. The law also specifies that temporary absence from work due to pregnancy cannot be used as a criteria to decide which employees will get to keep their job. Although the law’s intent is to protect the interests of pregnant women by giving them long maternal and parental leave, it should be taken into consideration that this policy can have undesired effects, and that it does not support the reconciliation of family and professional life. For example, it lacks the specific provisions referring to breast-feeding women or women with small children, which would enable them to work shortened working hours67. Trade union data shows that the rights of employed women are often violated during and after the pregnancy, but also that working women seldom initiate court proce-dures in these cases.68

The Labour Code defines maternal/parental leave, which can last up to 365 days for the first or the second child, and up to two years for the third child or any children that come afterwards. The child’s father can use this maternal leave if the mother dies or due to some other justified reasons (e.g. prison sentence, serious illness). Only the mother is allowed to use the first three months of maternal leave, but the re-maining nine months of the parental leave can be shared between both parents. In addition, when the child is born the father is entitled to leave of up to 7 days.69


The Labour Code forbids the dismissal of pregnant women or persons using maternal/parental leave. However, beyond this there is no security that they will get to keep the same job once their leave is over.

The Labour Code sets additional standards for parents with children under the age of three and single parents with dis-abled children or children under the age of seven. They are allowed to work overtime or night shifts only if they have given their written acceptance. The same treatment is ap-plied to employees who have adopted children or are fos-ter parents.

The Labour Inspection can initiate an offence procedure in cases of unequal treatment and other discriminatory situa-tions related to maternal and parental leave. However, since there is not enough systematic data collection within this institution, it is difficult to say whether these principles of protection from discrimination are really implemented.70

The Law on Health Protection has a social dimension, since it defines the policy and priorities in health protection. The Law mentions women as a specially protected category in family planning, pregnancy, giving birth and motherhood, but it does not specify that the working hours of health in-stitutions should be adjusted to the family and professional duties of women and mothers with children (e.g. specialist medical examinations)71.

The Law on Health and Safety at Work does not have any provisions on pregnant women, women who have recently given birth or breast-feeding women72. It also does not state the employer’s obligations in adjusting working conditions, taking precautionary measures and providing protection mechanisms for these women.73

The Law on Social Protection and Social Insurance deter-mines the forms of financial and non-financial assistance that the state has to provide to vulnerable families and individuals, including accommodation in social protection institutions for women without financial support, women


unable to work and single mothers with small children. However, there are only a few poverty reduction measures for vulnerable women or single parents, or measures which would support them in vocational training and employ-ment.

The Law on Contributions for Mandatory Social Insurance defines some incentives for employing persons that weren’t employed for a longer period of time – persons more than 50 years old or under the age of 30, and disabled persons. However, these incentives do not extend to employing women and single parents.74

Recommendations

To amend the Labour Code with the following provisions: introduction of the pregnant women’s right to leave for medical examinations; introduction of the breast-feeding women’s right to work part-time before the expiry of the one-year maternity leave; support to shortened working hours for women with small children; guarantee that work-ing women, once their maternity leave expires, can come back to the same job or an equally paid job; specification of types of work which may be dangerous for pregnant wom-en or unborn children.

To conduct research into flexible types of employment which would lead to amendments of the Labour Code de-fining these types of employment more clearly and gener-ate recommendations for an awareness campaign amongst employers, especially in those branches of the economy of-fering greater stability of employment, in order to promote flexible types of employment and jobs with reduced work-ing hours.

To initiate a public debate involving the governmental and NGO sector, on the current maternal/parental leave provi-sions in the Labour Code, given the disincentive they can pose for the employment of women.

To consider proposals for increasing employment among pregnant women and women with children using instru-


ments such as tax incentives as a form of compensation to employers, the possibility of shortened or flexible working hours for women on long leave, and also offering men in-centives to take parental leave.75

To propose amendments to the Law on Health Protection that would adjust the working hours of health institutions to take into account the family and professional obligations of women and mothers with children (e.g. specialist medi-cal examinations).

To propose amendments to the Law on Health and Safety at Work related to the standards for cases of complicated pregnancy, breast-feeding women and women who have recently given birth; the explicit definition of an employer’s obligations to adjust working conditions, take precaution-ary measures, provide protection mechanisms and define concrete risks that may put women (and men if necessary) in danger at work.

To provide systematic monitoring of violations of the right to parental leave.

To amend the Law on Contributions for Mandatory Social Insurance in order to include vulnerable groups of women (e.g. single mothers) in categories covered by financial ex-emptions.

To amend the Law on Social Protection and Social Insurance in order to achieve: an increased level of financial support, improvements in the quality of social services, introduction mechanisms for poverty reduction amongst socially vulner-able women (an active approach to their employment, pro-fessional training and increased “employability”), support programs for single parents combating poverty and social isolation, household help for single parents which would give them the opportunity to dedicate themselves to pro-fessional education, training and employment, introduc-tion of new evaluation criteria for needs for financial aid.


Self-employment and entrepreneurship amongst women

Conclusions

Women are less eager than men to engage in self-employ-ment of to initiate entrepreneurial activities. A higher in-come is the most common motivation for engaging in en-trepreneurship, both amongst women and men. However, more women than men are motivated by other reasons, such as a more stable income and faster career advance-ment.76

Information on property ownership, especially real estate ownership, is an important source of information for numer-ous economic activities, but the statistics on the gender of property owners are incomplete since the Citizen’s Personal Number (CPN) is listed for only 62% of owners. The existing data indicates the unequal access of women to ownership rights, since a smaller number of women own real estate which adversely affects their credit worthiness.77

In many cases, women only own a company on paper, while the company is managed by a man78. For similar reasons, it is difficult to find out the number of such companies which are run by women in practice, and what the consequences are of these relations to their position.

The grey economy has an important influence on the func-tioning of the private sector in Serbia. There is not enough data to predict the consequences of a sudden disappear-ance of the grey economy on the position of small enter-prises managed by women or owned by self-employed women, or on the future of such enterprises which rely ex-clusively on the grey economy.79

Currently there are no tax incitements for enterprises managed by women or for enterprises that employ only women.


During the interviews with the focus groups, women stated the following obstacles in entrepreneurship:80

i. Women often face problems with male colleagues, including discrimination, marginalization and ha-rassment.

ii. Women face difficulties in reconciling family and professional duties, being the ones that carry out the majority of household chores and family duties they cannot go on business trips easily.

iii. Social attitudes do not support women entrepre-neurs, especially in small, patriarchal environments.

There is a significant difference between the categories of self-employed and helping members – there are four times more men than women among the self-employed, while 2/3 of the “helping members” are women. This fact high-lights the need for social insurance policy to respond.81

The data shows that 1 300 000 persons have been regis-tered as agricultural workers, but there is no information about their gender structure82. It can be assumed that women who carry the burden of family life and the house-hold represent a significant part of this population. Up till now, women working in agriculture have mostly had health insurance, but they have not had pensions (apart from the family pension).

The Labour Code allows the self-employed to engage fam-ily members (children, spouses, parents, siblings and their spouses). Women are the majority in this category, which means that their work is often not acknowledged as work. Also, there is no provision that allows the same right to non-married partners.83

The Law on Health Insurance determines the right to health insurance of the following persons and their families: per-sons employed in private or public companies, persons who are the founders or owners of companies or self-em-ployed persons, unemployed persons who receive financial


aid, workers in agriculture, and all persons with short-term contracts. The Law also covers maternal/parental leave, sup-port to parents, support to children, support to preschool education for orphans, support to children with mental dis-abilities and children from poor families.84

Recommendations

To organize public awareness campaigns, campaigns for the promotion of successful women entrepreneurs and public debates on the difficulties that women entrepreneurs have to face.

To make a legal framework which enables the foundation of credit programs and special funds for encouragement of women’s entrepreneurship and other forms of self-employ-ment.85

To conduct surveys on real and fictitious business owner-ship by women which would indicate the reliability of of-ficial statistics on this issue.

To carry out research on the role of women in family enter-prises and the influence of such enterprises on women and their use of time.

To carry out a factor analysis on the reasons for the small number of self-employed women, and the significant drop in the number of self-employed women between 2003 and 2004.

To carry out analysis of the effects of introducing tax incen-tives and other measures to support enterprises owned by women or employing mostly women.

To improve the registration systems of different types of real estate by the National Geodetic Institute, in order to provide simple access to gender-segregated data on real estate ownership.

To increase the number of women in employment pro-grams, especially in those that include training and finan-cial aid for new businesses.


To adopt a more favourable normative framework for es-tablishing women’s collectives, to promote women’s collec-tives as a way of combining resources, to ease self-employ-ment through training and awareness raising programs on the new forms of economic association.86

To carry out research on the possible consequences of a sudden disappearance of the grey economy to the survival of small enterprises, especially those managed by women or those that support self-employed women, and the future of enterprises managed by women which have depended on grey economy up till now.

Through the Regulation on Register of Agricultural Hold-ings, to obtain gender-segregated data on owners of agri-cultural holdings and on workers in agriculture who have the status of helping members.

To amend the Labour Code so that the non-married part-ners can be included in the category of self-employed and thus acquire the right on health insurance.

To include in the proposal of the Gender Equality Law a provision stating that unemployed persons who are not covered by health insurance have the right to insurance from the state budget based on their work in the house-hold (household chores, care of children and other family members, work on agricultural holdings, etc.)

Women as helping members

Conclusions

Many working women in Serbia are in the specific position of “helping members” which means that they participate in work by helping other members of household in running the family business or holdings, but they do not receive payment for their engagement and consequently never pay taxes. The category of helping members is 72.3% fe-male and 27.7% male. More that half the women working


in agriculture (54.9%) have the status of helping members, while only 15% of men in agriculture are in this category. A great number of women participating in the survey defined themselves as “housewives” although further questions re-vealed them to be helping members. This shows the lack of awareness amongst women regarding their own status, and shows that their labour is severely undervalued, even by themselves.87

Recommendation

To carry our further research about the position of women with the status of helping members, which would analyze the forms and the depth of their exploitation.

The Characteristic position of women in agri-culture

Conclusions

Patriarchal attitudes are still dominant in the agricultural sector in Serbia, and men still prevail as the principal deci-sion-makers. Women especially face discrimination when it comes to property ownership (in the sample used in the re-search, 89.5% of owners were men). An example that shows the depth of patriarchal values is that, in cases when there are no male heirs in a family, the property is often inherited by sons-in-law, not daughters.88

There is no gender-segregated data on land ownership, since only 29.9% have registered their CPN.89

The small percentage of land ownership amongst women complicates the establishing of women’s collectives,90 giv-en that when establishing a collective, in cases when land is put into the collective as a form of participation by a found-ing member, it must be owned by them.

The Law on Collectives enables persons who are not land-owners to establish collectives.


Recommendations

To carry out an awareness campaign and promotion of oth-er measures (e.g. via agricultural collectives) which will help to change patriarchal values and improve the position of women in agriculture.

To introduce gender-based data collection on owners of agricultural households.

To question the possibility of further support to women’s collectives, especially amongst women who are not owners of agricultural households.

Pension rights and insurance

Conclusions

Although the EU member states have equalized the age of retirement for women and men, the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance allows women to retire five years ear-lier than men, but also allows them not to exercise this right if that is what they want. However, in cases of unemploy-ment, if the age condition for retirement is fulfilled, women are often forced to retire instead of receiving redundancy payments. Widows and mothers of deceased pensioners have better conditions for receiving family pensions.91

When calculating the amount of pension, the working years of an employed woman are automatically increased by two for giving birth to a third child. The downside of this provi-sion is that it lowers the average salary used to calculate her pension.92

The Law on Contributions for Mandatory Social Insurance stimulates employers to employ women older than 45 years of age (or men older than 50) by exempting them from paying the employer-based contributions for the newly employed93. However, this obliges them also to keep these employees for at least 5 years, or to pay the state all the contributions that they were freed from.94


Recommendation

To amend the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance in the following manner: to remove all the provisions that fa-vour men, especially those provisions that refer to family pensions; to give women the possibility to chose (not) to include the additional two years for giving birth to a third child; to ensure that women can chose to receive redun-dancy payments instead of being forced to retire if they are old enough to do so.

Unemployed women

Conclusions

In the past few years there has been a significant increase in unemployment amongst women with secondary educa-tion. This tendency became particularly visible in 200395, when the majority of public companies were privatized. Bearing this in mind, we can draw the conclusion that women, especially women with secondary education, bore the brunt of the social shock of transition.

There are significant differences in the unemployment rate among women between geographic regions, compared to the general unemployment rate. In the region of Pirot, the unemployment rate of women differs from the general unemployment rate by 2.75%. This rate increases in East, Central and South Serbia (Niš, Podunavlje, Rasina, Raška, Bor, Pčinj) up to the point that it is almost four times higher (9.09%) in the region of Pčinj.96

Of those who received redundancy payments 46.2% are women and 53.8% men. Women often face problems in getting redundancy payments because it is a condition that they should have 12 months of uninterrupted insur-ance payments or 18 months of payments with interrup-tions. This is a condition that women often fail to meet due to unstable and informal employment prior to losing their last job.97

42


According to NES, a large number of unemployed men (37.2%) and women (34%) do not have previous working experience, which means that they are looking for their first job.98

A large percentage of the unemployed used to work in in-dustry and commerce.99

Long-term unemployment (longer than one year) is a prob-lem that particularly concerns women (57.8%). More than 70% of unemployed persons that have been looking for employment for more than 10 years are women.100

NES is not considered to be an efficient service for finding employment, since jobs are more frequently found through private channels. There are significant variations in the effi-cacy and quality of employment programs.

Women are readier to attend additional training and pro-grams for active job searching than men.

Recommendations

To prepare additional measures for planning and imple-mentation of employment programs which will be partic-ularly directed at women with secondary education who have carried the largest part of the burden of transition and privatization in the past few years.

To direct active measures of employment for resolving the unemployment of women in municipalities in East, Central and South Serbia (Niš, Podunavlje, Rasina, Raška, Bor, Pčinj) where the unemployment of women is especially visible compared to the general unemployment rate.

To amend the Labour Code by introducing new forms of flexible employment (work from home, part time, work for hire, and other forms that allow easier movement from one job to another.)

To sanction employers who engage workers “on the black”.

43


To organize public work in the sphere of humanitarian, so-cial and cultural activities and, by the use of affirmative ac-tion, to mostly hire women for this, which would provide them salaries and insurance contributions on one hand, and on the other allow them to re-enter the labour market more easily and with greater flexibility.

To carry out research which would give a better insight into the reasons behind the minimal impact that active mea-sures for employment have had among women compared to men, and into the professional orientation and motiva-tion of women. Also to carry out more detailed research on the position of long-term unemployed women (more than 10 years) to help define possible support activities directed at their needs.

To allow the evaluation of NES’s Internet portal, following the needs of the users and demand on the labour market and identify the spheres where improvement is needed. Also find ways to improve the relevancy of the portal for employers and persons looking for employment.

To adapt professional training in order to respond to the needs of employers and facilitate the persons’ employ-ment, especially those persons who previously worked in industry or commerce.

To supervise training programs and active measures for employment in order to allow the measurement of their ef-fect in an appropriate manner.

Informal, additional and flexible forms of work

Conclusions

A significant amount of economic activity in Serbia is not legally regulated. It is estimated that in 2005 almost 1.2 million people participated in the grey, i.e. informal economy101. There is no research on the effects of the grey


economy on the position of women, especially vulnerable groups of women (ethnic minorities, single mothers, older women, disabled women, etc.).102 Research on the position of women in the grey economy in Bulgaria has shown that women participate in informal activities mostly because they cannot find employment in the formal economy. Such jobs often constitute an additional time-consuming bur-den and women with children take them mostly to provide education and meet other needs of their children.103

A very low percent of persons are engaged in temporary jobs that are legally regulated (1.8% of women and 4% of men).104

Recommendation

To carry out more detailed research on the role of women in the grey economy, which would be particularly focused on the low participation of women in legally regulated tempo-rary jobs.

Position of women from marginalized social groups

Conclusions

Social marginalization and lack of resources increase the risk of poverty for many categories of women – single mothers, older women, disabled women or women with health problems, women in rural areas (especially older women or those without property), women refugees and IDPs, women with status of helping members in household, Roma women, uneducated women, unemployed women and female victims of violence.

Compared to the overall female population, there is a sig-nificant percentage of difference in the unemployment rate of women from marginalized groups (refugees 15%, IDPs 32%, Roma women 39%).105


Amongst the Roma, for every four men there is one em-ployed woman. Many Roma women are employed in the grey economy, especially when they have not finished pri-mary education, and even the women with elementary schooling are registered in the employment service as non-qualified workers, which makes their search for employ-ment more difficult. At the same time, even women with formal qualifications (e.g. bakers, butchers) have difficulties to find employment since the employers often have vari-ous prejudices against employing Roma.106

Women refugees and IDPs have limited possibilities to find employment because they lack the social connections (which the women from the focus groups emphasized as crucial in employment) and they face possible prejudice from the employers and other employees.107

Women from marginalized groups also participate less in the labour market, even when they went through the ap-propriate training (e.g. they learned dress-making hair-dressing), due to the strong patriarchal attitude in their environment, dependency on collective centres and lack of will to test their competences in the outside environ-ment.108

According to a research from 2001, only 13% of disabled persons had the opportunity to work. The Law on Preven-tion of Discrimination against Disabled Persons and the Labour Code deal with discrimination against disabled persons and other vulnerable groups (persons searching for their first job, the long-term unemployed, persons older than the age of 50, IDPs and refugees and ethnic minori-ties). The Law also grants an exemption from NES contri-butions for pension, disability and health insurance, and for insurance against unemployment, which lasts up to 24 months, to an employers who hire persons from one of these categories. However, the law does not contain con-crete provisions regarding multiple discrimination against disabled women.109


According to the rules of NES, insurance payment exemp-tions can be granted for persons older than 50 if they are employed for more than 36 months. This provision is not a sufficient incitement for employers since they have to pay the contributions for employees directly to the Tax Admin-istration, while the contributions paid by NES are often re-ceived three months in arrears, which also means that the employers must pay interest on these amounts. This is an additional problem for employees who, due to this delay, often have interruptions in health cover.

Recommendations

To prepare regular reports on the (un)employment of wom-en from marginalized groups (single mothers, women old-er than the age of 45, disabled women, ethnic minorities) and to monitor the changes in results, which would target active measures more effectively at the most vulnerable groups.

To perform annual evaluation of the effects of employment programs, particularly on unemployed women from vul-nerable groups.

To provide special programs (in accordance with the pro-posals from the draft of NAP110) and additional forms of sup-port to women from marginalized groups who are search-ing for employment (e.g. by establishing support groups, groups for mutual support and collectives, by reducing the level of education required for work in social services, by improving the network services, etc.).

To carry out a special awareness raising campaign related to vulnerable groups on the labour market (Roma, refu-gees, etc.) and to inform potential employers about the ex-emptions they can receive when employing persons from vulnerable groups.

To amend the Law on Prevention of Discrimination against Disabled Persons by adding a provision stating that dis-crimination against disabled women is a very severe form


of discrimination in labour relations, since it actually means “double” discrimination.

To ensure the timely payment of the subsidies that NES pays to employers for employing persons older than 50 to the Tax Administration, in order to avoid problems for em-ployers and employees.


Reconciliation of professional and family life

Allocation of work and relation of power within the household

Conclusions

One of the key difficulties that working women face is the (im)possibility of harmonizing their working hours with their household chores and with the schedule of other fam-ily members. Women carry a disproportionally larger part of the burden of care of family members or children in cases of divorce. Out of the total number of employees who work shortened working hours in order to take care of children or other family members, 89% are women.111

There is not enough data to assess the exact economic and social impact of bringing up children on single parents in general, and especially on single mothers. However, as long as women get the custody without having high qual-ity child day care institutions available, their participation in the labour force will never get closer to men’s, especially in poor households.112


The lack of more flexible forms of work, jobs with short-ened working hours or job-sharing options has a particular impact on the possibility of women to participate in the la-bour market and carry out multiple roles in the household.

Information about the allocation of household chores shows the dominance of the patriarchal model in households. The survey results show that in the majority of households, men make strategic decisions about the distribution of income, while women get the more difficult role of arranging the use of money for everyday needs.113

Recommendations

To implement parts of the National Employment Strategy (2005) that recommend the introduction of various sorts of day care institutions for children under the age of 7, and to lobby in the private sector (e.g. big enterprises) to establish similar services for the children of their employees.

To implement parts of the National Employment Strate-gy which emphasize the need to pay special attention to single parents and parents with a lower level of education when providing jobs.

To promote flexible forms of employment, and to introduce privileges for employers in order to create jobs with short-ened working hours, at the same time allowing these jobs to be regulated in a way that assures equal access to well-paid jobs and guarantees equal treatment in salaries, privi-leges, and promotion, as well as simple transfer from one arrangement to another.

To improve the system of care and support for the elderly and the chronically ill, in order to ease the burden on work-ing women by connecting social services, which could pro-vide jobs for the women from marginalized groups.

To carry out research on the economic and social impact of bringing up children on single parents, especially on single mothers.

To carry out a Time Use Survey for women and men.


Gender-based violence

Conclusions

Unequal relations of power are often expressed though dif-ferent forms of domestic violence. Violence against women influences their productivity, self-confidence and capacity to participate in the labour market on terms of equality. However, there is no comprehensive research which would measure the effects of domestic violence on the position of women on the labour market in Serbia.

The statistics show that every second woman has endured some form of psychological violence, while every third woman suffered from physical abuse114. It is assumed that domestic violence exists in 40% of families115. Regional con-flicts have contributed to the spread of violence against women in Serbia, since many perpetrators suffer from post-traumatic disorder – 15.2% of perpetrators have par-ticipated in the armed conflicts, and 5.6% are refugees or displaced persons.116

The Criminal Code defines domestic violence as a crimi-nal act, while the Family Code defines further procedures within the civil law (e.g. includes new institutions, changes in competence, scope and content of institutions that deal with family relations, and protection measures in cases of domestic violence).117 The data indicates that the average procedure for implementation of protection orders lasts too long and is not easily accessible to poor women, due to the expense amount of the procedure needed to get the protection orders.118

Recommendations

To carry out a comprehensive research on domestic vio-lence and its impact on the position of women on the la-bour market.


To strengthen the capacities of all institutions so they can thoroughly implement the Criminal Code and the Family Code.

To take measures to increase the efficiency and effective-ness of court procedures.

To provide free advocacy and financial aid for the expenses of the procedure needed to get protection orders.


Value systems and women’s readiness to work

Conclusions

Although there are laws that cover many aspects of wom-en’s position on the labour market, poor implementation and use of these legal standards can be partially attrib-uted to the patriarchal value system which influences the behaviour and decisions of different actors in the labour market.119

Traditionalism, as a complex value system which includes orientations such as patriarchy, is deeply rooted in Serbia. In the conducted survey, only 7.8% of respondents were moderately/highly non-traditional, 32.1% were unsure and 60.6% were moderately/highly traditional. In comparison to the research from 1989, nowadays there are more wom-en in the category of extremely liberal attitudes. However, the dominating category for both genders in 2003 was moderate patriarchy, in opposition to 1989 when it was pronounced patriarchy. The rural population is still more patriarchal than the city inhabitants.120

Women usually show a lower level of readiness to accept employment than men121. However, all women (expect for women entrepreneurs) are mostly ready to work overtime,


to take additional jobs alongside their full working hours and to accept jobs below their qualifications in order to gain more money.122

Rural women are generally less ready to accept offered em-ployment, in comparison to city women. They are also less ready to attend further training and education, to found their own enterprises or to engage in self-employment. However, they are slightly readier than city women to ac-cept every job offered.123

There are more significant differences regarding education. Women with incomplete schooling or elementary school only are highly unready to accept any of the work engage-ments offered. Women with incomplete secondary educa-tion or vocational schools are ready to do any job that pays. Women with secondary or higher education are ready to work overtime. Women with high education are ready to do several jobs in a number of companies at the same time.124

Inclination towards entrepreneurship is low amongst women – women with all levels of education are unready to establish their own enterprise. However, women with vocational or university diplomas are generally readier to engage in self-employment.125

There are significant changes regarding the age factor. Younger women are readier to engage in different flexible forms of employment. This readiness rate drops amongst women in their late forties and early fifties.126

There are also differences regarding the family situation. Women who live with their partners but without children are the readiest to accept various work engagements. Half of them are ready to found their own enterprise, change the place they live or work overtime, etc. Single mothers are the least ready to accept a job offered, but more than half of them are ready to work overtime.127


All these categories of employees are ready to work over-time – the readiest are the self-employed (100%), experts (90%) and entrepreneurs (87%).128

Women from all categories are generally unready to trans-fer to part-time jobs with short-term contracts.129

Self-employed women are generally readier to work in the grey economy. (62%).130

Recommendations

To carry out media campaigns and adequate training for journalists and editors to change the patriarchal values which influence the overall position of women in society, and therefore their position on the labour market as well.

To work on empowering and mobilizing rural women, or women with incomplete schooling or elementary school only, through awareness raising campaigns, training and other measures which would support self-employment.

To prepare programs for additional support to women in their late forties and fifties.

To carry out research on the reasons why women are un-ready to work part-time or with short-term contracts, es-pecially bearing in mind the possible downsides of these forms of employment for women (e.g. low benefits and labour rights, impossibility of finding favourable forms of employment).



Women and the “Society of Knowledge” (information and communications technologies, modern skills and knowledge)

Conclusion

The analysis above has not covered the question of women and information and communications technologies (ICT). However, interviews with the focus groups and later discus-sion at the round table emphasized the need for a great-er understanding of the impact of ICT on the position of women on the labour market and of women’s capacities in this sphere131. Although the computer literacy rate is quite high in Serbia, research shows that amongst persons with a university degree, there are 15% of computer illiterate women, in relation to 10% of men. Regionally, the smallest differences between women and men are in Belgrade and then in Vojvodina, and the biggest are in Central Serbia. Amongst internet users, there are 48.3% of men 38.7% of women.132


Recommendations

To carry out comprehensive research on the influence of ICT on the position of women on the labour market and women’s ICT capacities.

To ensure that the employment policy implemented by NES follows the findings of ICT and computer literacy research, and to provide a larger number of computer training pro-grammes in Central Serbia and other regions where there are significant differences in ICT skills between women and men.


Special measures for the more equal participation of women in the labour market

Conclusions

The new Constitution of the Republic of Serbia allows (in Article 21) the introduction of affirmative action in order to achieve gender or some other type of equality.

The Law on Employment and Insurance against Unemploy-ment prescribes the basic principles of affirmative action for certain marginalized groups, including women, in a very restrictive manner. Affirmative action states that in case of a higher unemployment rate of women, they should be al-lowed to adequately participate in the implementation of active employment measures. In this way gender equality should be measured in relation to planned activities of em-ployment policy, but it is unclear how to define and mea-sure the “higher unemployment rate”. The Law does not elaborate on gender-based discrimination, or how to as-sure equality in certain labour rights (professional training, employment resources). Amendments of the law that the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy is currently preparing do not as yet include any of these provisions. Therefore the Law should define criteria for affirmative action in a clearer


way, with the possibility of stating quantitative categories, such as percentage.133,134

The draft NAP proposes positive action for the less repre-sented gender in education (equal opportunities, scholar-ships, a quota system, campaigns, etc.).

Recommendation

To amend the Law on Employment and Insurance against Unemployment with the following provisions: a more pre-cise definition of the notion of a “higher unemployment rate” determining its value through sub-categories of per-centage/participation; more equal access to certain labour rights (professional training, employment resources); assur-ing the equal representation of women in all the relevant sectors (e.g. NES, relevant ministries, etc.).


Possible steps

Starting from the comprehensive analysis and description of the situation regarding the position of women on the labour market in Serbia, and from the comments given by the focus groups and during the discussions at the round tables, the proposed mea-sures or recommendations can be grouped into several larger domains:

Systematic monitoring of the situation regarding the posi-tion of women in the labour market and gender equality, where introduction of a relatively holistic, systematic and regular monitoring of the situation based on the developed of a system of indicators is needed, as is improvement of regular statistical monitoring, and other public administra-tive records.

Building of institutional gender equality mechanisms for the creation, implementation and monitoring of gender equality policy at all levels.

Advancement of the legal framework and thorough imple-mentation of the law, with special emphasis on adoption of the Gender Equality Law and amendments of labour, fam-ily, social and health care legislation.


Improvement of active employment measures, whether by the use of the National Employment Strategy, or the use of other special measures and projects; also, adoption and implementation of the other strategies that have an impact on the position of women, above all, the National Strat-egy for Improving the Position of Women and Promoting Gender Equality, and then development of measures for strengthening the important resources relevant to the po-sition of women on the labour market, population policy, educational programs, etc.

Carrying out further research which would shed far more light on certain aspects of the problem that are currently beyond the reach of statistical monitoring and public re-cords, and which would allow the evaluation of results, of recommendations and measures.

These recommendations represent only some of the possible direction, noted during work on this project, and certainly do not limit the activities and measures needed for improving the posi-tion of women on the labour market and improving the overall gender equality policy. They are intended for the architects of state policy, particularly the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, the Ministry of Finance, the Directorate for Safety at Work, Labour Inspection, the National Bureau of Statistics, the Tax Administra-tion, and other institutions.

In spring 2007, during the preparation of these recommenda-tions, Serbia submitted its Initial Report on the implementation of the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Violence against Women (CEDAW), and received mandatory Recommendations from the CEDAW committee referring to employment of women. Concern was expressed at the structural discrimination against women in employment, which runs through the private and the public sector, and also through the unofficial sector. The Com-mittee requires the member state to apply a holistic approach in order to change and eliminate the systematic, indirect discrimina-tion against women on the labour market, and to work on improv-ing the employment of women. These Recommendations come at the right moment and they can serve as the initial grounds for a new, more active policy for improving the position of women


and fulfilling the requests stated in the UN Committee’s Recom-mendations.

Recommendations from research and comprehensive analysis are intended for all the other interested actors included in gender equality issues, especially for civil society actors, the Employer’s Association, trade unions and other associations, and for NGOs which have an important role of promoting, advocating, lobbying and even implementing programs related to direct strengthening of the economic resources and activities of women. The recom-mendations are also intended for experts and the wider public, in order to have a better understanding of women’s problems on the labour market and differences in the position of men and women. Last, but not the least, they are intended for working women, so that these women could be informed about their rights and opportunities, and gain direct benefit from the imple-mentation of the recommendations, as the essential beneficiaries of the proposed measures.



Literature

Babović, Marija, Report from Focus Groups, Belgrade 2006

Babović, Marija, Position of Women on the Labour Market – Sociologic Aspect, UNDP, Gender Equality Council, Government of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade 2006

Babović, Marija, Position of Women on the Labour Market – A compre-hensive Analysis, Government of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade 2006

Cvetković, Mirko, Informal Economy in Serbia, September 2005, http://www.anticorruption.bg, website last visited 8 March 2007.

Dimova, Lilia, Radeva, Polina, Women in the Informal Economy in Bul-garia 2004, Women’s Alliance for Development Foundation, Agency for Social Analyses, Sofia 2005

Jašarević, Senad, Overview of Legal Frameworks for Gender Equality in the Labour Sphere UNDP, Gender Equality Council, Government of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade 2007


Lukić, Marija, Višnjić, Jelena, Ćopić, Hana, Lukić, Jasmina, Position of Women on the Labour Market: Harmonization of Gender Equality Stan-dards with EU principles, Voice of Difference, Belgrade 2006

Momčilović, Jelena, Position of Women on the Labour Market – Eco-nomic Aspect, UNDP, Gender Equality Council, Government of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade 2006

Altera MB, Association for Women’s Initiatives, Gender Barometer - Social Position and Life Quality of Women and Men, Summary of the Research Serbia 2005

UNDP Beograd, Minutes from the discussion at the round table, Posi-tion of Women on the Labour Market, UNDP, Gender Equality Council, Government of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade 2006

National Action Plan for Improving the Position of Women and Promot-ing Gender Equality (2008-2012)

UNIFEM, The Story Behind the Numbers: Women and Employment in Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Commonwealth of Inde-pendent States, pp. 9-10, http://www.unifem.sk, website last visited 7 March 2007.


Glossary

Sex Biologic characteristics of men and women, which are universal, obvious and mostly unchangeable.

GenderSocially constructed roles and responsibilities which are attributed to men and women in a specific culture on a specific territory, which are learned and can be changed. It consists of characteristics, ways of behaviour, at-titudes, activities, norms, obligations, expectations and proscriptions that a society or a culture attributes and imposes on persons based on their sex.

Gender equality Genuine partnership between women and men in a society in which they work in conditions of equality and complementarities, making their life richer with their differences. It consists of the strategy of including both men and women’s interests and experiences in development programs in all political, economic and social spheres, with the objective to achieve benefit for both men and women. It assumes equal access to resources and


equal participation in achieving influence and control within a family, a community and a wider society.

Gender equality doesn’t mean simple inclusion of an equal number of women and men in all social activities, nor treating women and men in the same way.

Gender-based discrimination Gender-based discrimination relates to every differentiation and exclusion based on gender, which results in limitation of human rights and funda-mental freedoms of women and men in political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other sphere.

Affirmative actionAffirmative action (positive discrimination, preferential treatment) comes down to some sort of compensative justice, which means measures taken so that a person or a group of persons, who have suffered the consequenc-es of unequal treatment in the past, might be able to equalize their position in the society by the use of such measures.


Footnote

1 Eurostat, http://epp.eursotat.cec.eu.int/portal, in: Jelena Momčilović, Position of Women in the Labor Market in Serbia – Economic aspect.

2 Eurostat, http://epp.eurostat.cec.eu.int/portal, in: Jelena Momčilović, Position of Women in the Labor Market in Serbia – Economic aspect.

3 Survey on Labor Force, Republic Statistics Bureau, in: Jelena Momčilović, Posi-tion of Women in the Labor Market in Serbia – Economic aspect.

4 Survey on Labor Force, Republic Statistics Bureau, in: Marija Babović, Position of Women in the Labor Market in Serbia – A Comprehensive Analysis.

5 Survey on Labor Force, Republic Statistics Bureau, in: Jelena Momčilović, Posi-tion of Women in the Labor Market in Serbia – Economic Aspect.

6 Survey on Labor Force, Republic Statistics Bureau, in: Jelena Momčilović, Posi-tion of Women in the Labor Market in Serbia – Economic Aspect.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Marija Lukić, Jelena Višnjić, Hana Ćopić, Jasmina Lukić, Position of Women in the Labor Market: Harmonization of Gender Equality Standards with the EU Principles.


10 European Community Household Panel, ECHP et al, in: Jelena Momičilović, Po-sition of Women in the Labor Market in Serbia – Economic Aspect.

11 Senad Jašarević, Overview of the Legal Framework for Gender Equality in the Labor Sphere.

12 Ibid.

13 Amount of fines: 800,000 to 1,000,000 dinars for employers, 400,000 to 500,000 for entrepreneurs and 40,000 to 50,000 dinars for persons acting on behalf of an employer.

14 Senad Jašarević, Overview of Legal Framework for Gender Equality in the La-bor Sphere

15 Comment during the discussion at the round table Position of Women in the Labor Market in Serbia organized by UNDP.

16 National Action Plan for Improving the Position of Women and Promoting Gender Equality (2008-2012). It should be stated that the Government of the Republic of Serbia has not adopted the NAP yet.

17 Marija Babović, Position of Women on the Labour Market – A Comprehensive Analysis.


19 Comment during the discussion at the round table Position of Women on the Labour Market in Serbia organized by UNDP.

20 Marija Babović, Position of Women on the Labour Market – A Comprehensive Analysis.



23 That is why it is particularly important to: improve data collection on official and unofficial employment, improve data collection on employment of wom-en older than 45,, improve data collection on the labour force according to type of habitat (urban and rural areas), secure more frequent monitoring of la-bour force (twice a year) which would enable better implementation of active


measures on fluctuations on the labour market, carry out surveys of the labour force using a larger sample, make the database available to a wide public.

24 Marija Lukić, Jelena Višnjić, Hana Ćopić, Jasmina Lukić, Position of Women on the Labor Market: Harmonization of the Gender Equality Standards with the European Union Principles.

25 Focus groups.

26 Marija Lukić, Jelena Višnjić, Hana Ćopić, Jasmina Lukić, Position of Women in the Labor Market: Harmonization of the Gender Equality Standards with the European Union Principles.

27 Senad Jašarević, Overview of the Legal Framework for Gender Equality in the Labor Sphere.

28 Focus groups.

29 Marija Babović, Position of Women in the Labor Market – A Comprehensive Analysis.

30 Marija Lukić, Jelena Višnjić, Hana Ćopić, Jasmina Lukić, Position of Women in the Labor Market: Harmonization of the Gender Equality Standards with the European Union Principles.

31 Ibid.


33 Marija Babović, Position of Women in the Labor Market – A Comprehensive Analysis

34 Marija Lukić, Jelena Višnjić, Hana Ćopić, Jasmina Lukić, Position of Women in the Labor Market: Harmonization of Gender Equality Standards with EU Prin-ciples



37 Marija Lukić, Jelena Višnjić, Hana Ćopić, Jasmina Lukić, Position of Women in the Labor Market: Harmonization of Gender Equality Standards with EU Prin-ciples .




40 Comment during the discussion at the round table Position of Women in the Labor Market in Serbia organized by UNDP


42 Association for Women’s Initiatives, Gender Barometer – Social Position and Life Quality of Women and Men.

43 UNIFEM, The Story Behind the Numbers: Women and Employment in Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Commonwealth of Independent States.


45 Jelena Momčilović, Position of Women in the Labor Market – Economic As-pect.











55 Marija Lukić, Jelena Višnjić, Hana Ćopić, Jasmina Lukić, Position of Women in the Labor Market: Harmonization of Gender Equality Standards with EU Prin-ciples.

56 Ibid.

57 Ibid.

58 Ibid.

59 Ibid.

60 Ibid.

61 Student’s Union of Serbia research from 2004, in: Marija Lukić, Jelena Višnjić, Hana Ćopić, Jasmina Lukić, Position of Women in the Labor Market: Harmoni-zation of Gender Equality Standards with EU Principles .




65 Ibid.

66 Ibid.




69 Long parental/maternal leaves were identified as one of the biggest obstacles which continue to havie a negative effect on the participation of women in the labour market, since many employers are often unsatisfied with the ad-ditional burden that these long leaves represent to business. Data shows that women mostly use the full duration of parental/maternal leave. According to the Social Insurance Bureau, only 15% of men used parental leave when the law gives them that possibility.

70 Marija Lukić, Jelena Višnjić, Hana Ćopić, Jasmina Lukić, Position of Women on the Labor Market: Harmonization of Gender Equality Standards with EU Principles .






76 Marija Babović, Position of Women on the Labour Market – A Comprehensive Analysis


78 Research of women entrepreneurs in the municipality of Zvezdara (Dževerdanović, N., 1998), in: Marija Babović, Position of Women on the La-bour Market – A Comprehensive Analysis

79 Comment during a discussion at the round table Position of Women on the Labour Market in Serbia organized by UNDP


81 Ibid.



83 Ibid.

84 Ibid.

85 National Action Plan for Improving the Position of Women and Promoting Gender Equality (2008-2012) - draft.


87 Marija Babović, Position of Women in the Labor Market – Sociologic Analysis

88 Ibid.

89 Marija Babović, Position of Women in the Labor Market- A Comprehensive Analysis

90 Ibid.







97 Jelena Momčilović, Position of Women in the Labor Market – Economic As-pect, Comment during the discussion at the round table Position of Women in the Labor Market in Serbia organized by UNDP



99 Ibid.

100 Ibid.

101 Mirko Cvetković, Informal Economy in Serbia.


103 Dimova. Lilia: Radeva, Polina, Women in the Informal Economy in Bulgaria 2004.


105 Marija Babović, Position of Women in the Labor Market – Sociologic Analysis .

106 Marija Lukić, Jelena Višnjić, Hana Ćopić, Jasmina Lukić, Position of Women in the Labor Market: Harmonization of Gender Equality Standards with EU Principles .




110 National Action Plan for Improving the Position of Women and Promoting Gender Equality (2008-2012) - draft..

111 NES, Women and Men in Serbia, 2005, in: National Action Plan for Improving the Position of Women and Promoting Gender Equality (2008-2012) - draft..



114 Vesna Ristanović-Nikolić, Research on Domestic Violence 2002, in: National Action Plan for Improving the Position of Women and Promoting Gender Equality (2008-2012) - draft.


115 Association for Women’s Initiatives, Gender Barometer – Social Position and Life Quality of Women and Men.

116 Vesna Ristanović-Nikolić, Research on Domestic Violence 2002, in: Marija Lukić, Jelena Višnjić, Hana Ćopić, Jasmina Lukić, Position of Women in the La-bor Market: Harmonization of Gender Equality Standards with EU Principles .


118 It is around 40.000 RSD.


120 Ibid.

121 This could be clarified by the existence of partiarchal patterns in the society, according to which women are encumbered with household chores, care for children, the elderly and the ill family members.

122 Ibid.

123 Ibid.

124 Ibid.

125 Ibid.

126 Ibid.

127 Ibid.

128 Ibid.

129 Ibid.

130 Ibid.


132 Altera MB, Association for Women’s Initiatives, Gender Barometer – Social Po-sition and Life Quality of Women and Men. Sažetak istraživanja.


133 Marija Lukić, Jelena Višnjić, Hana Ćopić, Jasmina Lukić, Position of Women in the Labor Market: Harmonization of Gender Equality Standards with EU Principles .


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