Can you imagine if your decision to quit your job resulted in you leaving the workplace bruised and with a police report? That happened to twenty-eight-year-old Enisa Klepo from Jablanica, a small town in the south of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
“I could not even imagine that there could be a physical attack on me at work, but also the enormous support that followed from all sides after the attack,” Enisa told Radio Free Europe (RSE).
On August 1st, a young law graduate was physically attacked and seriously injured by her employer, the owner of the Jablanica hotel. She explains that she was attacked after, frustrated by mobbing, she quit her job as a receptionist and asked for the payment of her earned salary.
In support of Enisa Klepo, on August 9th, several organizations held a peaceful protest march against violence against women in Jablanica. The meeting was scheduled for 6 p.m., and support protests have also been announced in Bihac and Gracanica.
The case of Enisa Klepo is “extreme, but not the only one,” says Sladjana Milovanovic, legal representative of the Lara Foundation.
Salary of 350 euros
Klepo worked at the hotel as part of a project by which the Municipality of Jablanica co-finances the employment of young people. Because of this, the greater part of her salary of 700 BAM (about 350 euros) was received by her employer from the budget of the Municipality.
“As a receptionist, you do whatever the boss thinks of that day, you clean the windows, iron in the laundry room, because there is a shortage of workers. I also tried to avoid such tasks because I thought I wasn’t paid to do that and I didn’t want to be humiliated and exploited like that.”
Despite everything, she did not want to leave without saying a word, but together with her colleagues announced her resignation. She was, she says, ready to train someone else for the job if necessary. After announcing her resignation, she says, the pressure increased, which is why she resigned on August 1st, before the announced deadline. The owner refused to pay her, and she refused to leave the facility until she received her earned salary for July.
Then the owner of the hotel, Amir Dzafic, brutally beat her, after which she spent two days in the hospital, and he was in custody.
Data from the Association of Citizens of the Republika Srpska (RS) “Stop Mobbing” show that this is not an isolated case of violation of workers’ rights. Until July of this year, the association received 221 reports of violations of workers’ rights. Women are most often at risk in the workplace, says Anica Ramic, president of the Association, Sobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
