Employers in Latvia will be banned from demanding that jobseekers know Russian under a bill passed by parliament, the Saeima, in a third reading on Thursday.
The bill, which amends the labor law, now goes to the Latvian president for approval.
The bill was submitted by lawmakers from the the nationalist All for Latvia party, who said Latvians who do not know Russian often face discrimination in the labor market.
The amendments stipulate that knowledge of foreign languages, including Russian, may not be demanded by employers except for cases when that knowledge is required in order to perform the job.
The Latvian human rights center said the state labor inspectorate and the ombudsman’s office have received no complaints of employment refusals due to jobseekers not speaking the Russian language.
Russian speakers make up 44 percent of Latvia's population. Latvian is the only state language. Russian has the status of a foreign tongue.
