"I am looking for employees, if you are Roma, don't call," read the job advert of a sawmill company from the eastern Slovak town of Humenné. When it caught attention of the media, the employer deleted it from the internet. "These kinds of adverts are definitely discriminatory. They exclude a certain group of citizens based on their ethnicity and are illegal," said Vanda Durbáková, an advisor for civil and human rights for the public broadcaster RTVS. "Until now, I have employed 300 to 400 Roma and none of them proved to be reliable. They would steal from me," the employer defended himself. He also said that members of the Roma minority used to call him in the night time. According to Laco Oravec of the Milan Šimečka foundation, even though finding a suitable employee is often difficult, the recruiting process should not exclude an entire group of people. "The employer could have had negative experiences with many members of the Roma minority, however this kind of advert condemns the entire group," said Oravec for RTVS.
The largest Slovak recruitment website, Profesia.sk, also deals with racist adverts. "If any discriminatory criteria are applied in the job offers, we contact the company and ask for it changed," said Katarína Tešla, PR manager of Profesia.sk. The National Labour Inspectorate has not looked into the case so far. However, if discriminatory behavior from the employer is proved and an adequately qualified candidate for the job was not employed, the company could be penalized with a fine of up to €100,000.
