As part of the Project activities held in 2006 the women’s seminar supported by Finansforbundet has been held in Sarajevo in December. The seminar gathered 25 participants from finance and commerce sector in BiH. The focus of the seminar was mobbing as very serious treat to the working population.

The seminar has been arranged in two parts: Mobbing as a phenomenon and communication as one of the main strategy towards avoiding and preventing mobbing.

Mersiha Beširović made a PowerPoint presentation on this subject and used different participatory methods to discuss the issue in different working groups. Dr. Jadranka Mikić, a sociologist, has made a group discussions and workshops on communication in the conflict situations.

The seminar lasted two days and was very well welcomed by the trade union women in the network.

One of the main conclusions in the seminar has been that real strategic mobbing doesn’t exist in BIH. Due to the lack of the effective legislation, high unemployment rate and bad economical situation, the employers have no need to mob in order to get rid of the workers when it is much easier and cheaper to just get rid of the worker by dismissal. However, horizontal mobbing is very present as well as all types of bossing. The women are faced with higher risks of mobbing due to the double mobbing they are faced in their families too. The participants were provided by very good material, presentation in Bosnian and by real life examples from Croatia. They also got concrete advices and instructions how to react in the particular mobbing situation. They also had a chance to practice their communication skills and to see how not to communicate in the mobbing situation.

The seminar beside its educational and informational role has again very positive effect on the network by providing the opportunity for women to meet and big together for two days.