Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2019, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Slovenia (Ratification: 1992)

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Protection of workers against discrimination. Legislation. The Committee notes with interest the adoption of the Protection against Discrimination Act which came into force on 24 May 2016 and which replaced the Implementation of the Principle of Equal Treatment Act of 2004. It notes that the Act strengthens protection against direct and indirect discrimination and harassment and sexual harassment, irrespective of sex, nationality, race or ethnic origin, language, religion or belief, disability, age, sexual orientation, sexual identity or sexual expression, social status, property status, education, or any other personal circumstance in various fields of social life including employment and occupation. The Committee notes that the Act does not explicitly refer to political opinion in the list of grounds covered. The Government reports that the Act’s non-exclusive list of grounds which includes “any other personal circumstance”, and the protection against employment discrimination provision on the ground of “belief” in the Employment Relationship Act of 2013, along with article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees everyone equal human rights and fundamental freedoms irrespective of political or other conviction, among other grounds, provides protection against “inadmissible” unfavourable treatment on the basis of political conviction. The Committee further notes that the new Act established the new Advocate of the Principle of Equality as an independent body with enforcement powers. In the field of employment, the Committee notes that this Act overlaps and reinforces the existing non discrimination provisions in the Employment Relationship Act of 2013, as amended. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the measures adopted to promote and apply the Discrimination Act of 2016 as well as the non-discrimination provisions in the Employment Relationship Act of 2013, as amended, with respect to employment and occupation in the public and private sectors, including any steps taken to raise awareness among employers and workers. The Government is also asked to provide detailed information on the implementation of the protection against discrimination on the ground of political opinion. The Government is asked to provide information on the functioning of the office of the Advocate of the Principle of Equality and on any steps taken by the Advocate’s Office to enforce the Discrimination Act in employment and occupation, including the number of cases dealt with and the ground of discrimination concerned, disaggregated by sex.

Article 1(1)(a). Discrimination on the ground of national extraction. The Committee recalls its previous concerns regarding non-Slovenes from the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, namely “erased people” and the difficulties they face in terms of access to social and economic rights, including access to education and employment, because of the loss of their citizenship and by extension their right to remain in the country. The Committee recalls that, on 26 February 1992, 1 per cent of the population of Slovenia (25,671 people) was removed overnight from its registry of permanent residents, following the declaration of independence of Slovenia. “Erased people” are mostly of non-Slovene or mixed ethnicity, and they include a significant number of members of Roma communities. The Committee notes that the Act Regulating the Legal Status of Citizens of the Former Yugoslavia Living in the Republic of Slovenia, 1999, as amended in 2010, expired on 24 July 2017. It notes from the report of the Government that, between 1999 and 31 December 2013, 12,373 permanent residence permits were issued under this Act; and from 1 January 2011 to 31 August 2017, 316 additional residence permits were issued. It further notes that, following the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Kuric et al v. Slovenia, the Committee of Ministers decided in May 2016 that the Act Regulating Compensation for Damage to Persons Erased from the Permanent Population Register, 2013, satisfied the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights and, thus, concluded the case. The Committee notes that this Act has begun to be implemented. However, it notes that the United Nations Special Rapporteur on minority issues, in its report following its visit to Slovenia (5-13 April 2018) highlighted that the situation of “erased people” (who for the most part are members of various ethnic, religious or linguistic communities of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) – is still unsettled, as compensation is still being fought over – despite the judgements made by the European Court of Human Rights and a decision by the Constitutional Court in April 2018 ruling against the limitations for those who filed claims for damages in judicial processes on the amount of compensation awarded. The Committee notes also that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, among others, have expressed their concern at this matter (A/HRC/40/64/Add.1, 8 January 2019, paragraphs 52–55). In light of the Constitutional Court ruling, the Committee urges the Government to take steps to provide a fair compensation scheme to “erased people” still awaiting to be compensated, to take into account losses such as property or employment and to continue to provide information on the steps taken and the results achieved.

Article 2. Equality of opportunity and treatment. Roma. The Committee recalls that for a number of years it has highlighted that one of the main reasons for the high unemployment rate among Roma people is their education level. Hence, its previous request to the Government to pursue its efforts to promote equal access for Roma to education and training, and to provide information on: (i) the measures implemented to promote access to employment and to particular occupations of Roma men and women, including a description of the community work programmes, and their concrete results; (ii) the reasons for focusing primarily on community work in the context of employment programmes; and (iii) the measures taken to prevent and address discrimination, stereotypes and prejudice against the Roma community. The Committee recalls that, under Article 1(3) of the Convention, “employment and occupation” explicitly includes “access to vocational training”. Moreover, in paragraph 750 of its General Survey of 2012 on the fundamental Conventions, the Committee highlights that access to education and to a wide range of vocational training courses is of paramount importance for achieving equality in the labour market [as] it is a key factor in determining the actual possibilities of gaining access to a wide range of paid occupations and employment, especially those with opportunities for advancement and promotion. The Committee adds that not only do apprenticeships and technical education need to be addressed, but also general education, “on the job training” and the actual process of training.

The Committee notes the very detailed information provided by the Government on the labour market situation of the Roma people and the range of measures adopted to improve their situation in education and employment. The Government states that it places great importance on measures (systemic, specific, and project-based) for the effective integration of Roma children in education. The Committee notes that from 2015 to 2017 there has been a slight decrease in unemployment and a slight increase in the employment of Roma men and women, with men having higher employment rates than women. It notes that Roma people continue to be a target group of the Active Employment Policy and that over 2,400 Roma participate, annually, in programmes including formal and informal education, training, career counselling, job-seeking assistance and public works projects. The Committee further notes the adoption of the National Programme of Measures for the Roma for the 2017–21 period, which includes raising educational levels, reducing unemployment, elimination of prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination, preserving Roma culture, language and identity, among its objectives. The Committee notes that the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, in its 2017 report, recognized that Slovenia has a solid legislative and policy framework for promoting Roma rights and welcomed the recent adoption of a revised National Programme of Measures for Roma 2017–21, which includes a plan for strengthening the pre-school education of Roma children; the tutoring system for Roma pupils; Slovenian language learning; the inclusion of Roma in the apprenticeship system; and the training of education professionals who work with Roma children. The Commissioner however observed that, if officially segregation (schooling in separate classes) is no longer present, de facto the situation is still not satisfactory, for example: (i) Roma children continue to be underrepresented in pre-schools and overrepresented in special needs schools, with about 12.2 per cent of Roma children being directed to such schools in the school year 2017–18 in comparison with 6.18 per cent of other children; (ii) in kindergartens they can be placed together with other children in mixed kindergarten classes or in “special classes” (which is possible only in the regions with large Roma populations); (iii) there is still a high level of absenteeism from school and drop-out rates in some regions; and (iv) a very low number of Roma children who reach secondary and tertiary education in the country (over 60 per cent of Roma have not completed elementary school). The Commissioner noted that teachers, Roma children and parents generally acknowledge that many of the difficulties Roma children encounter in primary schools are due to language barriers as many Roma children have no or limited command of the language spoken by the majority population. He also identified the following additional reasons for this as: insufficient value placed on education by families; poor housing conditions that do not allow families to make school a priority; early marriages and pregnancies; and criminality among teenage boys. The Committee notes further that, in its 2019 Country Report on Non-Discrimination in Slovenia, the Network of legal experts in gender equality and non-discrimination of the European Commission, observed that “In Slovenia, there are specific trends and patterns (whether legal or societal) in education regarding Roma pupils, such as segregation.” In addition, the Committee notes that, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority issues commended Slovenia for the considerable efforts it has made in recent years to improve the situation of Roma and the protection of their human rights, including in key areas such as education and employment. The Special Rapporteur noted that Slovenia does not officially collect disaggregated data on ethnicity, language or religion, and for this reason, no one has a clear idea of the actual size of the country’s most vulnerable and marginalized minorities; and that no disaggregated population data have been collected since 2002. The Special Rapporteur however observed that the Roma (and the Sinti) continue to be the most marginalized and vulnerable minorities and recommended inter alia temporary affirmative action programmes in employment and increased awareness-raising campaigns to provide a more rounded view of members of the Roma community (A/HRC/40/64/Add.1, 8 January 2019, paragraphs 20, 29, 33, 62). While welcoming the various initiatives taken by the Government to promote non-discrimination, education and employment of Roma, women and men, the Committee wishes to stress that the unemployment rate for Roma people continues to be high and that improving access to education is key to combat marginalisation and poverty experienced by the Roma people. The Committee asks the Government to pursue its efforts to promote equal access for Roma people to education (in particular through a better access to pre-school education and the employment of suitably trained Roma teaching assistants), training and employment programmes. At the same time, the Committee asks the Government to increase its efforts to address discrimination and prejudice against the Roma community and to take steps to encourage Roma women and men to participate in programmes which will lead to their employment. Observing that there remains a fundamental gap between adopted policies and programmes on the one hand and reality as experienced by members of the Roma minority on the other hand, the Committee asks the Government to continue to provide detailed information on the results of the various initiatives taken to promote non-discrimination in education and employment of Roma women and men. Finally, recalling that appropriate data and statistics are crucial in determining the nature, extent and causes of discrimination, to set priorities and design appropriate measures, to monitor and evaluate the impact of such measures, and make any necessary adjustments, the Committee asks the Government to take steps to collect and analyse relevant data, including comparable statistics to enable an accurate assessment of changes over time while being sensitive to and respecting privacy.

General observation of 2018. With regard to the above issues and in more general terms, the Committee would like to draw the Government’s attention to its general observation on discrimination based on race, colour and national extraction which was adopted in 2018. In the general observation, the Committee notes with concern that discriminatory attitudes and stereotypes based on the race, colour or national extraction of men and women workers continue to hinder their participation in education, vocational training programmes and access to a wider range of employment opportunities, resulting in persisting occupational segregation and lower remuneration received for work of equal value. Furthermore, the Committee considers that it is necessary to adopt a comprehensive and coordinated approach to tackling the obstacles and barriers faced by persons in employment and occupation because of their race, colour or national extraction, and to promote equality of opportunity and treatment for all. Such an approach should include the adoption of interlocking measures aimed at addressing gaps in education, training and skills, providing unbiased vocational guidance, recognizing and validating the qualifications obtained abroad, and valuing and recognizing traditional knowledge and skills that may be relevant both to accessing and advancing in employment and to engaging in an occupation. The Committee also recalls that, in order to be effective, these measures must include concrete steps, such as laws, policies, programmes, mechanisms and participatory processes, remedies designed to address prejudices and stereotypes and to promote mutual understanding and tolerance among all sections of the population. The Committee draws the Government’s attention to its general observation of 2018 and requests the Government to provide information in response to the questions raised in that observation.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.