Czech Republic to ban discrimination in employment
PRAGUE, Dec 7 (CTK) - The Chamber of Deputies today approved a new anti-discrimination law that is supposed to ensure the equal treatment of people regardless of their race, gender, age or sexual orientation.
If approved by the Senate and signed by the President, the law could come into effect on July 1, 2006.
The law should ensure equal treatment and access to education, employment, health care, social benefits and housing. It should also protect people from being discriminated against for their physical handicaps, language proficiency, religion, political persuasion, property, family status, political party affiliation or trade union membership.
Mothers and pregnant women should also enjoy increased protection. The law should make it easier for them to prove they are being discriminated against by their employers.
The bill received unanimous support from the deputies of the three parties that form the governing coalition, namely the senior governing Social Democrats (CSSD), the junior governing Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) and the junior governing Freedom Union (US-DEU).
Most of the deputies of the senior opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) and the junior opposition Communists (KSCM) voted against the bill.
The KSCM had indicated it would support the anti- discrimination bill under the condition that parliament first votes to annul the existing lustration laws. However, the Chamber of Deputies today voted to uphold the lustration legislation.
The country's lustration laws oblige applicants for specified civil service jobs to corroborate that they were not agents of the former Communist regime's secret police prior to 1989 or did not hold senior positions in the regime's apparatus.
The approved anti-discrimination legislation is to fulfil the requirements of an EU directive that the Czech Republic is supposed to comply with in light of its accession to the EU in 2004.
"Other European state have similar bills and we approved ours somewhat belatedly," Justice Minister Pavel Nemec (US-DEU) told CTK. According to him, the law should primarily have a preventive effect.
"It would be normal if people did not need such legislation," he said, adding that he expects only a minimum of cases to end in court in connection with the law.
On the contrary, deputy Marek Benda (ODS) worries that a consistent application of the law could overburden Czech courts with thousands of lawsuits.
"The law is either a mere proclamation and will not have any effect or it will give rise to thousands of court disputes that will be terribly difficult to substantiate," Benda told CTK.
According to Benda, sufficient protection from discrimination is already provided by the country's Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and by other valid legislation.
The current legislation regulating protection from discrimination is mostly restricted to labour relations. However, according to an April survey by the STEM polling agency, three- fourths of the country's inhabitants believe that discrimination exists on the Czech labour market, specifically.
The survey's respondents listed age, motherhood and pregnancy, one's medical condition or physical handicap as the most frequent reason why certain groups of people are disadvantaged.
The newly approved legislation stipulates that the ombudsman, the country's public defender of rights, should see to it that people are treated equally. The ombudsman would provide victims of discrimination with information about possible legal recourse. The ombudsman would also record their specific complaints and issue findings over them.
Prague Daily Monitor:
