Every third Ukrainian citizen experiences employment discrimination

Every third Ukrainian citizen (33%) considers employment and employment relations to be the field where discrimination is experienced the most.

This is evidenced by results of the joint study of the Maidan Monitoring information centre and the Sociologist research bureau, conducted with the assistance of the European Commission, Interfax news agency reports.

Employment discrimination in central Ukraine is faced three times less than in the west, east and south of the country: 14% against 40%, 41% and 44% respectively.

44% of respondents believe that women in Ukraine receive unreasonably fewer employment opportunities than men. Only one in three respondents in central Ukraine (31%) shares this opinion, and about half respondents in western, eastern and southern Ukraine agree with this (52%, 49% and 50%, respectively).

Two-thirds of respondents (65%) agree with the statement that school administrators should have the right to fire a teacher, if it turns out that he or she is a homosexual. Such an opinion is mostly supported in the south (77%) and the centre (70%). The number of supporters of this point of view is much smaller in the east and the west – 59% and 61%, respectively.

However, every fifth respondent believes that an employer has the right to fire a disagreeable employee. The greatest number of people sharing this point of view lives in the east (30%), the smallest – in the center (11%).

The authors of the study note that the issues of employment discrimination have the age nuances.

“The main discrimination processes in employment are experienced by the oldest and the youngest age groups as indicated by the majority of respondents. At the same time, young people rarely see the problems of older generation, and vice versa, older generation less draws attention to the employment problems of youth,” sociologist Tetiana Zub stresses.

In her opinion, this may be due to the objective problems of each of the groups, which do not allow a broader view on the problems of others.

According to the study, employment relations are among top three discriminating areas for Ukrainians. Discrimination is greater felt only in medical institutions (44%) and is about the same in relations with public authorities (32%).

The study was conducted with the assistance of the European Commission and consisted of three stages: a series of focus group interviews (29 groups in 19 cities in 17 regions of Ukraine), a series of in-depth interviews with experts, IDPs, servicemen and people with vivid stories of discrimination (a total of 199, covering 28 cities in 20 regions of Ukraine) and the quantitative stage (face-to-face survey involving 1,006 respondents). The field works were conducted from January 26 to February 6.