Is the proposal for subsidizing private companies that will assist in equal ethnic representation in employment a necessary need or political populism, is the topic of this edition of the political video magazine SCAN.
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said that the government will encourage and cooperate with the business sector in order to support good interethnic relations and mutual trust, adding that there will be subsidies by jobs and not along ethnic lines.
Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi announced subsidizing employment in the private sector of members of other ethnic communities in the country, but said that it’s not known how that will be realized.
Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bekteshi also claims there will be state money for all private firms that will employ persons of other ethnic affiliation.
Professor Mirjana Najcevska indicates that there shouldn’t be different treatment towards people because of certain characteristics, among which also ethnicity, especially when it comes to employment in the private sector.
For VMRO-DPMNE, subsidies for private companies for employment along ethnic lines is unacceptable.
Visar Ademi thinks that with this way of subsidizing we are going back to the time of Nikola Gruevski’s regime, namely, that employment will be based on ethnicity. He points out that the market should be regulated, entrepreneurs to think freely and not to have party cadre imposed on them.
Besa leader Biljal Kasami in an interview for TV21, in the TV show „Click Plus“, said that if it were for populism than he would say that private companies should work on equitable representation, but that in reality the situation is different.
Lisa Bauta Shaqiri thinks that the problem is more social than it is political or economic and that the subsidizing must not be done based on ethnicity, because in an attempt for preventing discrimination, we are using another discrimination.
Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Fatmir Bytyqi says that it’s ungrateful for public money to be distributed on ethnic grounds, that is, professionalism would be the main criteria.
Journalist Ramush Muarem Cirko says that singling out ethnicity in employment cannot be considered affirmative and that it’s contrary to Constitution of the state.
Jovana Trencevska from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, at CIVIL’s panel “Discrimination and employment in the public and private sector”, says that currently in the state there is no complete legal regulation that would be dedicated to discrimination and equal opportunities and therefore with the program of the government to 2024, one of the top priorities is precisely the adoption of the Law for prevention and protection against discrimination.
“Last chance” for the Law on protection against discrimination. Will it finally be adopted…
Diana Tahiri / Dehran Muratov
editing: Arian Mehmeti
camera: Atanas Petrovski
Translation: N. Cvetkovska
