The Otherness Foundation was established in December 1993 by the Association of Hungarian Humanists. The aim of the Foundation was to create and operate the Legal Defense Bureau for National and Ethnic Minorities (NEKI). NEKI has been operating and protecting the rights of national and ethnic minorities in Hungary since 1994. Within this protection of rights we provide legal assistance in all cases where someone has received differentiated treatment due to their ethnic origin. In the past 10 years we have initiated procedures in several cases, mostly due to discrimination against Romas. The complaints about discrimination coming from different spheres of life encompass almost all branches of the law. In the field of civil law we have claimed legal redress for the violation of personal rights; in the administrative field we have started procedures for damages incurred, and upon violation of social laws we have stepped up against resolutions that are against the law. In cases of compensation we have represented the later acquitted defendant; and in criminal cases the plaintiff and last but not least in cases of discrimination in the field of labourlaw we have initiated procedures at the Labour Inspectorate or the Labour court. We publish our most significant current cases in our annual White Paper.
Discovering discrimination against employees is a task that is perhaps harder than average, as there are no witnesses, there is no documentation, and sometimes the potential candidate does not even get to hand in his curriculum vitae to the employer. At the same time, we have found that proving discrimination is not easier when it occurs during work. Based on these experiences we have established a comprehensive program that is hopefully capable of revealing the typical problems that occur during employment.
Between July 2003 and June 2004 within the framework of the PHARE ACCESS 2001 program we have tried taking steps to decrease, lessen discrimination against Romas in the field of labour. As a first step we have compiled a short, easy-to-understand publication based on the relevant laws, focusing on the most significant questions. In this we have collected the most important labour laws and regulations, of which an employee should be aware of during the establishment of employment, throughout employment and the termination of employment. We believe that several disadvantages, offences befalling employees can be prevented if they are aware of their basic rights, if they know the deadlines and the forum to which they can turn to for legal redress in cases of different infringements of their rights. The Legal Guide for Employees was printed in ten thousand copies. The publication has been sent to Roma organisations as well as labour centres, in order for it to reach those concerned so that they can utilise it. According to feedback we have received, the Guide was popular, the ten thousand copies have been handed out within days, and several offices would like to receive further copies of it.
As the next step in the project we have organised so called complaint-days in Nógrád, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén counties. The aim of these complaint-days was to offer the opportunity of using our help – and thus claiming legal redress – for people, who perhaps – due to the great distance or the lack of information – cannot reach our Bureau directly. During the course of these complaint-days 2 of our fellow-workers travelled to the given area and there met the leaders of the local minority local government and the plaintiffs. On these meetings we strove to give advice to those present on labour discrimination and tried to answer their primarily legal-oriented questions. Where we met a complaint where we saw the opportunity, we initiated legal procedures on behalf of the plaintiff.
From the complaints recorded during the PHARE Program, we have initiated legal procedures in 5 cases. We have filed labour suits and also a personality rights suit. We strove to select different types of cases, which reveal different aspects of discrimination that befalls Romas in the world of labour and also shows the different possibilities of remedies and the difficulties of these.
Our aim with the essay that the reader holds now is to disclose the experiences of the Bureau in the past 10 years and naturally during the course of the Program, thus offering help to the specialists working on these topics. Our further aim is to compile recommendations that will contribute to the decrease of discrimination that Romas experience.
Budapest, May 2004.
Head of program