More than two and a half years have passed since the beginning of the implementation of the new Law on Gender Equality in the Republic of Serbia. In the implementation of the aforementioned law, the Rulebook on Record Keeping and Reporting on the Achievement of Gender Equality was adopted and it entered into force in 2022, explaining in more detail the obligations of employers and public authorities in terms of forms, content and methods of submitting reports and records on the achievement gender equality.

Bellow we will provide an overview to the basic obligations in the field of gender equality that all employers who employ more than 50 people have, the way of performing the aforementioned obligations, including the deadlines for their performance.

Before the review, it is important to keep in mind that the failure of employers to fulfill the mentioned obligations is regulated by law as a misdemeanor for which a fine ranging from 50.000 to 2.000.000 RSD is prescribed for a legal entity, i.e., 5.000 to 150.000 RSD for a responsible person in a legal entity and 10.000 to 500.000 RSD for an entrepreneur.

Also, if you are a public authority at the same time, in addition to the obligations listed below, you must also take into account the special obligations established for this category of entities.

1. Plan for achieving and improving gender equality

The first obligation of employers who employ more than 50 persons is the adoption of the Plan regarding the achievement of gender equality. The plan is adopted and implemented within the framework of annual plans or work programs and must contain:

1. A brief assessment of the situation regarding the position of women and men at the employer or in the public authority;
2. Age;
3. List of special measures, reasons for determining special measures and goals achieved by them;
4. Start of application, method of implementation, control and termination of implementation of special measures.

The employer is obliged to inform the competent authority – the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue about the adoption of the plan within 15 days from the date of its adoption, and to submit the adopted plan along with the notification.

2. Annual report on the implementation of the annual plan

Data on the implementation of the plan from the previous point, in the part related to the achievement of gender equality, form an integral part of the annual report on the implementation of the annual plan adopted by the employer’s authorities. The Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue is informed about the adoption of the annual report (along with the delivery of the annual report) within 30 days from the date of adoption of the report.

3. Recording data on the achievement of gender equality and the Annual Report on the achievement of gender equality

The employer is obliged to regularly record data classified by gender on the prescribed form (form 1 established by the Rulebook on Record Keeping and Reporting on the Achievement of Gender Equality). In the event of a data change, the employer is obliged to record the change in the form within 8 working days of its occurrence. At the request of the inspection, the employer is obliged to put the form in question for inspection.

In addition to this, the employer is obliged to prepare the Annual Report on the achievement of gender equality by filling in form 3 (also determined by the Rulebook on Record Keeping and Reporting on the Achievement of Gender Equality) which contains an assessment of the state of the achieved gender equality at the employer.

The previously mentioned forms are kept electronically and in written form, whereby the data in both forms must be identical. Data are expressed numerically or as percentages and cannot contain personal data.

Data records are kept, i.e., the Annual Report is filled out in the Serbian language in the Cyrillic script, and in the Latin script in accordance with the law, which regulates the official use of languages ​​and scripts.

Employers are required to submit completed forms 1 and 3 to the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue in written or electronic form, no later than January 15 of the current year for the previous year.