Conference paper
AGE DISCRIMINATION AT CROATIAN MARKET IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIAL AWARENESS AND EUROPEAN LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Nefreteta Zekić Eberhard
; Doktorska škola Društveno-humanističkih znanosti Sveučilišta u Osijeku
Abstract
According to demographic data (2012), every fifth European citizen is older than 60. The average age of the Croatian population in 1991 was 37.1 years and in 2011 it increased to 41.7 years. At the same time the age discrimination is the most frequent type of discrimination in the European Union according to the research conducted by European Commission. The results gained by the means of a survey among unemployed persons and employers have shown that both categories consider the age discrimination to be the most frequent in Croatia. Discrimination ban in the Croatian legislature is a constitutional category and after having accessed the EU, Croatia has implemented European anti-discrimination legal framework which is considered to be one of the most progressive legal frameworks in the world. In spite of sophisticated laws, recent research has shown that almost one third of the employers and over a half of unemployed persons do not show understanding for discrimination notion whereas one third of unemployed persons and employers do not even know whether discrimination is punishable by law or not. These results partly explain the fact that the first enforceable judgment for age discirimination in Croatia was passed only a year ago. In addition, the problem area of age discrimination at the labour market in Croatia has not been given sufficient significance so far in the scientific research and it has been approached mostly one-dimensionally in the context of ''mandatory retirement'' at the age of 65 as an arbitrary determined limit between worker's productivity and unproductivity according to some experts. While elaborating the topic, the author has been applying statistics and the results of former relevant surveys as well as competent works of legal theoreticians. The aim of this paper is to examine how much is mere legal framework sufficient to struggle against age discrimination without institutionalized support in raising the social consciousness of promoting age limits, lifetime and working productivity in population.
Keywords
age; discrimination; age discrimination; labour market
Hrčak ID:
132105
URI
Publication date:
30.8.2014.
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