The dismissal of an employee who did not support the Day of Solidarity with persons belonging to the LGBT community received significant attention across the country.

The prosecuting authority charged the person who terminated that employee’s employment agreement on account of a post published on the company’s intranet with committing an offence involving the restriction of that person’s rights on account of religion. The grounds for this case show how strictly one must separate occupational matters from people’s world views. 

The significance of this case is enormous. On one hand, it pertains to fundamental issues – the constitutionally protected rights of individuals (freedom of religion and speech, the ban against discrimination); on the other hand, it pertains to daily affairs which nearly every employer encounters – increasingly more unconstrained statements made by employees concerning their employers’ activities that appear on multiple forums, including social media.

There is no need to persuade anyone that all of us have the constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of holding our own autonomous world view, including the freedom of religion, the freedom of speech and that moreover people cannot be subject to discrimination in their work place on account of their religion or political views. 

However, can an employer, which is frequently an international organization employing thousands of people represent a specific world view and impose it on others? Can it require its employees to share the values of the organization of which they are members?

When they begin to cooperate with their employer, employees declare that they have familiarized themselves with an organization’s set of rules, practices, values or its Code of Conduct that they will adhere to them. An employer has the right and a duty to take actions to internalize ever better the standards it declares when it trains its employees and provoke discussion for the purpose of deepening the organization’s awareness and culture on how the organization intends to accomplish these goals.

Nonetheless, the right of speech and the freedom of having and expressing political views are part of the catalogue of fundamental human rights and cannot hinge on the view taken by an employer. Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights protects the right to express opinions while stating that exercising it involves liability, while any possible restrictions should stem from the law and should be dictated by the purposes of protecting other people’s reputation and rights. This restriction may also encounter a suitable response, including criminal law. 

An employer who forbids the right of free speech or who imposes values and views that fall within the area of a person’s autonomy is in violation of human rights and may incur liability for doing so, even criminal liability. 

The only proper tool for countering the escalation of these types of problems is constantly working on an organization’s culture, communicating while respecting human dignity and responding properly to events constituting conflicts of values.

More in the newsletter dedicated to HR law issues - PRO HR July 2020.