SHE SAID “NO” TO THE RULING PARTY RALLY, THEN FACED BULLYING: Subotica worker wins legal battle over abuse at Gerontology Center!

The Higher Court in Subotica ruled that Ranka Kašiković, an employee at the city’s Gerontology Center, was subjected to workplace harassment by the institution’s then-director.

The court ordered the Gerontology Center to pay her a total of 300,000 dinars in compensation for non-material damages.

The case was a retrial at first instance, after the Court of Appeals overturned the previous first-instance ruling and returned the case to the Higher Court for a new trial.

The case was subsequently assigned to another judge after Kašiković received a decision establishing that her right to a trial within a reasonable time had been violated, she told the Beta news agency.

According to the ruling reviewed by Magločistač, the court partially upheld the lawsuit Kašiković filed on March 11, 2022, finding that she had been subjected to workplace harassment between November 26, 2021, and February 21, 2022.

The court found that the then-director, among other things, overloaded Kašiković with additional work duties, ignored her requests for assistance and relief from those duties, and addressed her in a raised voice, saying: “We’re done, get out!”

Among the actions the court deemed harassment was also ordering Kašiković to provide an explanation for alleged violations of work discipline after she had requested relief from her workload.

The ruling also cited the withholding of timely information necessary for performing personnel-related duties, unjustified exclusion from a management meeting, and refusal to approve her attendance at a workshop organized by the Ministry of Finance.

The Gerontology Center was prohibited from repeating the harassment in the future.

The institution was ordered to pay Kašiković 200,000 dinars in compensation for damage to her honor and reputation and 100,000 dinars for the fear she suffered, plus statutory interest.

It was also ordered to reimburse the plaintiff for legal costs amounting to 286,925 dinars.

Kašiković stated in her lawsuit that she had been employed at the Gerontology Center since 2012, and that the harassment began after she refused, on November 26, 2021, to attend a rally organized by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), of which she is not a member.

According to the allegations in the lawsuit, she underwent medical treatment and took sick leave from February 21, 2022, as a result of the harassment.

An appeal against the ruling may be filed with the Court of Appeals in Novi Sad.

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