Observación (CEACR) - Adopción: 2024, Publicación: 113ª reunión CIT (2025)

Convenio sobre la discriminación (empleo y ocupación), 1958 (núm. 111) - Chequia (Ratificación : 1993)

Article 1 of the Convention. The anti-discrimination legislation. The Committee notes with satisfaction the Government’s information in its report that section 16(2) of the Labour Code of 2006 (Act No. 262/2006) as amended, now provides that: “Any discrimination in employment relations is prohibited, in particular discrimination on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation, racial or ethnic origin, nationality, citizenship, social origin, gender, language, health, age, religion or belief, property, marital and family status and relationship or obligations to the family, political or other opinion, membership and activity in political parties or political movements, trade unions or employers’ organizations; discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy, maternity, paternity or gender identification shall be deemed to be discrimination on grounds of sex”. It further notes that section 16(3) provides that “the concepts of direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, victimization, instruction to discriminate and incitement to discriminate, and the cases where differential treatment is permissible, shall be regulated by the Anti-Discrimination Act”. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the application of sections 16(2) and 16(3) of the Labour Code, including any guidance that it issued, any complaints that arose with regard to the application of these sections and any court proceeding settled or ongoing.

Discrimination on the basis of political opinion. The Screening Act. The Committee notes that discrimination on the basis of political opinion is now formally prohibited under the Labour Code, as amended. It welcomes the information provided by the Government clarifying which positions with decision-making powers in the Civil Service are subject to screening (i.e. which positions require the issuance of negative screening certificates), pursuant to Act No. 234/2014 Coll., on the Civil Service, as well as the information on the number of positive certificates issued (2,032 in 2022 and 472 in the first half of 2023, of which 22 and 9 were positive in the respective years). It notes from the Government’s report that from September 2018 to the issuance of the report, a total of 6 new lawsuits related to positive screening certificates have been filed, and that in all cases the court determined that the plaintiff was not entitled to be registered as a person referred to in section 2(1)(b) of the Screening Act, or as a collaborator of military counter-intelligence. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government that an amendment to the Screening Act is currently going through the legislative process. The Committee asks the Government to provide a copy of the relevant amendments to the Screening Act once adopted, and to continue to monitor closely the application of the Screening Act and provide information on the screening certificates issued during the reporting period, indicating the number and nature of positive certificates issued and providing examples of the positions concerned. The Committee also requests the Government to continue to provide statistical information on any appeals lodged against a positive certificate and the results.

The situation of the Roma in employment and occupation. The Committee notes that no information was communicated by the Government on this point. It notes from the 2019 concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) the disproportionately high number of Roma who are unemployed, or in informal employment and the lack of representation of Roma in the public sector. It further notes the concern of the CERD that Roma children remain at risk of being misdiagnosed and enrolled in special education programmes for children with mild intellectual or psychosocial disabilities; and the prevalence of segregated schools where the large majority of pupils are Roma, noting that this practice is exacerbated by the concentration of Roma in socially excluded localities and by the reluctance of non-Roma parents to have Roma pupils attending their children’s schools (CERD/C/CZE/CO/12-13, 19 September 2019, paragraphs 15(d) and 17). The Committee reiterates its request to the Government to actively take action to promote the employment of Roma, in cooperation with employers’ and workers’ organizations, and to take the necessary measures to assess the effective impact of the measures taken within the framework of the various projects and programmes, including the Comprehensive Strategy for Combating Social Exclusion (2011–15) and the Strategy for Roma Integration by 2020. The Committee further urges the Government to: (i) provide specific information on the measures taken to reform the educational system to end segregation of Roma pupils and promote inclusive education; and (ii) take concrete measures, within the above established framework or otherwise, to fight against stigmatization and discrimination against the Roma population and promote tolerance among all segments of the population.

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