#ministry #employee #fired #shared #meme #Márton #Nagy
The case was brought to trial, and based on the first instance verdict, the ministry must pay nearly five million in damages.
After more than twenty years of service, an employee of the then Ministry of Economic Development (now National Economy) was dismissed from his job in the spring of 2023 because he shared a meme on his private Facebook page Large About Martin. The ministry worker took the case to court, and the TASZ representing him now reported that they won the case.
According to the human rights organization’s report, the ministry did not care when they sent the employee away, telling him that his legal relationship would be terminated because he had shared a meme on Facebook five weeks earlier. Not only was he sent away, he was also banned from employment in the government sector for three years, all this after they had never had a problem with the fired employee before, and at the last performance evaluation, his immediate superior recommended him for an exceptional rating, which is the highest rating level in the public service.
The unnamed former employee shared the above image of the minister, referring to the price caps. According to him, he did not want to make fun of Márton Nagy, he just found the expression funny. On the part of the ministry, however, they denied that they had researched the profile of their colleague, according to their statement, they found out about the post “through the official organizational system”.
TASZ took his case to the Public Service Decision Committee in the first round, but it dismissed the complaint saying,
the meme was capable of seriously damaging the good reputation of the government administrative body and trust in good public administration.
The verdict of the Public Service Decision Committee was then challenged at the Capital Court, which then established that the dismissal was unlawful. Based on the first-instance verdict, the former ministry employee receives a flat-rate compensation of nearly HUF 5 million, and the ministry must also pay the court costs. The TASZ also indicated that it is possible to request reinstatement in lawsuits initiated due to illegal dismissals, but their client did not claim this.
