During the Pandemic in BiH, 25,000 Persons lost their Job, mainly Women

A United Nations survey in Bosnia and Herzegovina on gender equality found that 60 per cent of jobs in the Federation of BiH and 70 per cent of jobs lost in the Republika Srpska during the pandemic belonged to women. Is the reason sex discrimination or solely lack of work?


The Association of United Women from Banja Luka says that the problem of gender discrimination at work must be solved systematically. The Law on Gender Equality prohibits issues for women during employment, such as those on family planning, but in practice, employers regularly ask them and thus discriminate against women in the beginning.

"Certainly this pandemic situation has affected women much more than men, given that women work in these low-profit industries such as trade, catering, footwear and leather," said Lana Jajcevic of the United Women Association.

According to a UN Women survey, women in Bosnia and Herzegovina were first on the list to be fired during the pandemic. In the Federation, 60 percent of jobs were lost by women, and in the Republika Srpska, 70 percent. Research has shown that entity government subsidies are also much more focused on preserving male jobs. The President of the Association of Employers of the Federation of BiH denies that this is gender discrimination, BHRT writes.

"When employers are in a situation where they have to lay off workers due to reduced work, it will be very difficult to give up good workers, regardless of whether they are men or women. These industries are more affected where obviously more women worked ", says Adnan Smailbegovic, President of the Association of Employers of FBiH In Republika Srpska, most women are employed in the sector of trade, catering, tourism and service activities, almost 75 percent, says the president of this branch union, and adds that this sector is most affected by the pandemic.

Employers in Republika Srpska also claim that layoffs due to lack of work have nothing to do with gender. "I don't think there is any gender discrimination, but there are elements of women as gentler beings who are harder to bear and mothers are taking care of children for the whole family and that's why it influenced them to be on the dismissal list," said Goran Savanovic from the Trade and Catering Union. 

"Compared to March 1 last year, today we have 5,000 more employees. If we would like to follow the trend of layoffs by gender, we should measure how many females were hired when our number of employees increased ", says Sasa Acic, director of the Union of Employers' Associations of RS. 

During the pandemic in Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than 25,000 people lost their jobs. Institutions claim that after the easing of restrictive measures and with the increase in the volume of work, the number of employees also increased.