CZECH SENATOR ANGRY ABOUT CROAT’S LAWSUIT
Croatian Times
Feb 10 2010
Croatia
Czech Senator Jaromir Stetina has sent an explosive letter to "American
colleagues" on the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
The letter is a reaction to a suit against the Czech Republic by a
Croat who claimed national discrimination.
The Czech Republic is charged with human-rights violations at the
European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
Snjezana Pelivan, a Croat who has resided in Prague since 1995, claims
the Czech Republic failed to safeguard her rights to non-discrimination
and a fair trial.
Pelivan was employed as a marketing manager by American Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). After several years of work, her
employment was terminated in June 2005 without any reason, prior
warning or previous disciplinary measures and without severance pay.
Stetina warns in his letter that Prague RFE/RL employees are divided
into three castes. The first includes American citizens who enjoy the
protections provided by the Federal Equal Employment Opportunities
Commission. Czech citizens are protected by the Czech Labour Code.
Unfortunately, employees from third countries "enjoy" zero protection.
He said RFE/RL hires its foreign employees using labour contracts
that explicitly deny them protections and guarantees automatically
granted to any employee in the country by Czech labour laws.
In fact, foreigners employed by RFE/RL in Prague may be fired at any
time, for any reason and even without severance pay.
Pelivan and Armenian citizen Anna Karapetian refused to accept
"shut-up" money and took RFE/RL to court. Thus, for the first time,
nationally discriminatory labour policies and actions practiced by
American RFE/RL in the Czech Republic were publicly exposed.
Accusing the Czech Republic as the RFE/RL host country of having
violated the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms, Snjezana Pelivan took her case to the Strasbourg court.
Stetina added: "The Czech Republic was and remains a very hospitable
country to American RFE/RL. However, the Czech Republic definitely
does not deserve the price it is now paying for its hospitality to
RFE/RL. Legal gimmicks and court tricks aside, it is patently indecent,
unfair, cynical and hypo-critical to exploit for bureaucratic ends
the sad fact that many highly- qualified foreign professionals working
for RFE/RL are stateless persons, dissidents, political refugees who,
being cut off from their native countries, are existentially dependent
on their employment with RFE/RL. Placed by RFE/RL in a legal vacuum
in the Czech Republic, they simply don’t risk protesting their status
of having no rights."
Stetina asked US Senators to stop the harmful lawsuits. He believes
RFE/RL should be instructed to make a peaceful offer to the plaintiffs,
Snjezana Pelivan and Anna Karapetian, and to abandon its discriminatory
employment policies.