Some Kosovo women claim that their employers asked them to take a pregnancy test before hiring them.
A research study of the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) including 400 employers– 1,301 women and 374 men– concluded that 40.8% of women are discriminated against when it comes to getting hired, because women who are planning to have children are viewed differently from those who are not planning for motherhood.
In another study done by the Gap Institution in 2011, it is said that businesses have started to reexamine the positions of women and reevaluate their hiring policies, to be more selective when choosing their staff. At the time, over 33,000 women worked in the private sector; 30% of them were under 30 and could potentially take maternity leave over the next year.
A.Q. (the real name known to the author) says that she kept her first weeks of pregnancy a secret because she wasn’t sure how her employer would react.
She said:“I told them I was pregnant and to my surprise they welcomed the news and told me immediately that they would take care of me, make my job easier and that I could take the maternity leave according to the law.”
They promised her to save her work spot for when she returns from the maternity leave, but in case they break their promise, she says that she will fight for her legal rights.
From the employers surveyed by the Kosovo Women’s Network, 14.7% declared that they prefer to hire women who are not planning to have children, 17% prefer women who want to have children, and 27.5% did not define their preferences. When asked if they ever didn’t hire a woman because they couldn’t afford to pay maternity leave, 14.2% admitted to doing it and 85.8% denied it.
According to the officials of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MLSW), the initiative to change and complete the 2010 law on labor that started three years ago, still hasn’t been proceeded in the Government of Kosovo. In the meantime, the MLSW in the labor plan for 2017 has foreseen writing a Concept Document to improve the field of work relationship.
In an answer from the media office it is said :“All the meetings and workshops that had to do with the case of maternity leave, MLSW has invited, informed and consulted the representatives of Kosovo Women’s Network, and this cooperation will continue in the future.”
The 2010 law on labor, allows employed women to get up to twelve months of maternity leave. During the first six months, the employer pays her compensation worth 70% of the basic salary, and the last three months of the maternity leave the Government of Kosovo pays her 50% of the average salary in Kosovo. According to this law, women can also prolong their maternity leave for another three months with no pay.
With a medical certificate, an employee can start her maternity leave up to 45 days before her due date. In a period of 28 days before the due date, the employer in accordance with the employee can ask her to start her maternity leave if the employer believes that the employee is not able to complete her work duties.
Employers are obliged to respect the rules set by the law. In case they break the law, the sanctions vary from 500 € to 35,000€.
Adeline Gjergji
