Mr. Cyril Najdenov is a local Roma, 28 years old man form Karantci village, Polski Trambesh Municipality. In the beginning of March 2009 he approaches the local Labour Agency at the municipality centre – Polski Trambesh Town to apply for a job in Germany. His friend has told him that there is an announcement in the Labour Agency that a German employer recruits manual labour workers for the construction site job.
At the local Labour Agency department he approached Mrs. Antoniya Nikolova, asking how he can apply for the position and what the requirements are. The state employee Mrs. Nikolova explained him that at this stage he only need to fulfil an application form and submit it to her. Cyril explained that he won’t be able to fulfil the application form by himself as he is illiterate and asked for assistance. Mrs. Nikolova refused because “it is a requirement that the application is fulfilled autographically” she said.
Frustrated by this refusal he has reported the case in our office and asked assistance for fulfilling his job application and it to be considered by the local Labour Agency.
Meeting with the Director of Labour Agency – Svisthov Town, Mrs. Tanya Gutceva, was requested by the legal consultant, as Labour Agency – Polski Trambesh is dependent on the Director of Labour Agency – Svisthov. On this meeting job specification and application were presented by the Director. The job specification requires for applicant worker to be physically health and with stamina as the job offered was at the construction site and required a hard manual labour. Furthermore it was determined that the application form was issued locally, by the Labour Agency – Svisthov, to ease administrating of applicants. The application consisted requests that the applicant to fulfil by hand his/her full names, address and EGN / personal identification number/, the job for which he/she is applying and to be signed by the applicant. Director Mrs. Tanya Gutceva requested a statement to explain the facts on the case from Mrs. Nikolova. In her statement Mrs. Nikolova explained that she was missleaded by the requirement set in the application form that the applicant must fulfil it by hand, thence understood as by him - autographically.
As there wasn’t any requirements by the employer that the applicant worker to be literate, furthermore that literacy is not an ability needed for the concrete job, refusing to consider Cyril’s application Mrs. Nikolova has committed an act of discrimination.
Considering the will of the victim and minor significance of the case court litigation wasn’t applied to this discriminatory act. Mr.Najdenov application was admitted and an explanatory note and instructions to the Labour Agency – Polski Trambesh were issued by the Director Gutceva to explain the discrimination committed and to cease any future cases of unequal treatment of illiterate persons.
