Hungarian Court Rejects Appeal in Sexual Orientation Harassment Case
09/03/2011
Submitted by
Háttér Support Society for LGBT People
Budapest, March 8, 2011 – The Metropolitan Court of Budapest rejected yesterday an appeal against an earlier decision of the Hungarian Equal Treatment Authority which fined a cable television company for harassing one of its employees due to his alleged sexual orientation.
The claimant had been working for a local cable television company in a small town as a marketing coordinator and reporter for over a year. Even though he had a girlfriend, rumors about his sexual orientation started after he shared a room with one of his male colleagues during a company trip. Following the trip, threatening and offensive comments by his colleagues and especially the director of the company became widespread. The director on one occasion claimed that “in the good old days people such as him would have been kicked in the nuts so hard that their head would fall off”. Ultimately, the claimant was banned from the screen by arguing that “his behavior is too feminine” to appear on TV.
The victim turned to the Equal Treatment Authority claiming that he had been subjected to harassment based on his alleged sexual orientation. As evidence, he submitted voice recordings of the director using offensive language against him. In its decision in November 2010, the Equal Treatment Authority found the company guilty and imposed a fine of 1 million HUF (appr. 3,500 EUR).
The company, however, did not give it up and appealed the decision to the Metropolitan Court of Budapest. In its ruling yesterday, the Court found that the investigation was thorough and the fine proportionate taking into consideration all circumstances of the case.
The Equal Treatment Authority was set up in Hungary in 2005 following the adoption of a comprehensive equal treatment legislation covering – among other grounds – sexual orientation and gender identity. Recent years brought an increased number of cases involving sexual orientation or gender identity, but LGBT rights groups in the country claim that the large majority of LGBT discrimination cases remain unreported. A research conducted by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences among members of the Hungarian LGBT community in 2007 found that every third respondent had suffered from discrimination and harassment at the workplace, and the level of discrimination was even higher in the field of education and access to goods and services.
The claimant had been working for a local cable television company in a small town as a marketing coordinator and reporter for over a year. Even though he had a girlfriend, rumors about his sexual orientation started after he shared a room with one of his male colleagues during a company trip. Following the trip, threatening and offensive comments by his colleagues and especially the director of the company became widespread. The director on one occasion claimed that “in the good old days people such as him would have been kicked in the nuts so hard that their head would fall off”. Ultimately, the claimant was banned from the screen by arguing that “his behavior is too feminine” to appear on TV.
The victim turned to the Equal Treatment Authority claiming that he had been subjected to harassment based on his alleged sexual orientation. As evidence, he submitted voice recordings of the director using offensive language against him. In its decision in November 2010, the Equal Treatment Authority found the company guilty and imposed a fine of 1 million HUF (appr. 3,500 EUR).
The company, however, did not give it up and appealed the decision to the Metropolitan Court of Budapest. In its ruling yesterday, the Court found that the investigation was thorough and the fine proportionate taking into consideration all circumstances of the case.
The Equal Treatment Authority was set up in Hungary in 2005 following the adoption of a comprehensive equal treatment legislation covering – among other grounds – sexual orientation and gender identity. Recent years brought an increased number of cases involving sexual orientation or gender identity, but LGBT rights groups in the country claim that the large majority of LGBT discrimination cases remain unreported. A research conducted by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences among members of the Hungarian LGBT community in 2007 found that every third respondent had suffered from discrimination and harassment at the workplace, and the level of discrimination was even higher in the field of education and access to goods and services.
