Overall assessment

• Author: Krstic, Ivana
• Pages: 82-83

82

12 Overall assessment

The following transposition problems were mentioned in this report:

Legal provisions

1. Pregnancy and maternity discrimination are not explicitly prohibited as a form of direct

sex discrimination.

2. The GEA does not specify that harassment and sexual harassment, as well as any less

favourable treatment based on the pe rson’s rejection of or submission to such conduct,

amounts to discrimination. However, harassment and sexual harassment are prohibited in

the Labour Law.

3. Instruction to discriminate is not recognised as a special form of discrimination in

Serbian anti-discrimination legislation.

4. Serbian law does not address wage transparency.

5. There is no possibility for flexible working arrangements, such as arrangements by

which workers can ‘bank’ hours to take time off in the future.

6. The LPD does not expressly cover self-employment.

7. Serbian legislation does not make any specific references to pregnancy, maternity and

parenthood discrimination in relation to the access and supply of goods and services as a

form of gender discrimination.

8. Anti-discrimination legislation does not explicitly guarantee that an employed woman,

after returning from maternity leave, should remain in the same or equivalent job.

Protection mechanisms and implementation issues

1. There is an overlap with the LPD in relation to civil procedure, and unfortunately, there

has been no case law under the GEA so far (although it provide s better protection with

respect to terms and release from advance payment of the costs of proceedings).

2. Court practice is still underdeveloped and sanctions for gender discrimination are mild

and cannot be perceived as effective and dissuasive.

3. Neither the new GEA nor amendments to the LPD were adopted until the end of 2019,

showing that there is a lack of political will to give priority to prevent gender discrimination.

4. Although different national strategies were adopted in order to tackle discrimination and

many measures were implemented in order to improve sex equality, women still face

everyday discrimination, particularly in the workplace.

5. There are many difficulties in relation to the application of the principle of equal pay for

equal work and work of equal value in practice, as well as in relation to access to work,

vocational training, employment, working conditions, etc. In general, many women are

asked about their family plans in interviews, and many of them are faced with limited

access to work and with termination of their employment contract after returning from

parental leave. Also, fathers are still not equal in their rights to take parental leave, and

apart from the unsatisfactory legal norm, the cause of this should be sought in the deeply

rooted gender stereotypes and traditional roles for women and men.