Thousands of Czechs complain about job discrimination

Some 3,500 Czechs annually visit civic guidance centres to complain about job discrimination and primarily about breaches of labour legislation, Ladislav Cumba from the Association of Civic Guidance Centres (AOP) told CTK today.

He said that in February the OAP started preparing a project that would document job discrimination in the Czech Republic.

The project will focus on the three most endangered groups: Romanies, single mothers and people returning to work after parental leave, Cumba said.

The first studies will be ready in May and in July the AOP expects to receive detailed statistics from all 39 civic consulting centres, he said.

Czech courts have only dealt with a small number of cases of racially-motivated job discrimination since the 1989 fall of communism and most of these cases were uncovered by non-profit organisations.

The Czech Republic does not yet have an anti-discrimination law that it should have passed by its entry in the EU in 2004.

At present, a new anti-discrimination bill is being studied by individual ministries and according to Minister without Portfolio Dzamila Stehlikova who is in charge of minority issues, the anti-discrimination law could take effect in mid-2008.