Poland Supreme Court: ‘IKEA Wrong To Fire Christian Over LGBTQ+ Remarks’
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WARSAW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Poland’s Supreme Court has thrown out an appeal by the Swedish furniture giant IKEA against a Christian employee who was fired for criticizing the LGBTQ+ movement quoting the Bible.
This week’s verdict, as seen by Worthy News Thursday, concerned a ruling by the lower Kraków Regional Court, which ordered IKEA to keep Janusz Komenda in his job.
The legal wrangling began in 2019 after IKEA published an article on its internal intranet computer network asking staff to participate in pro-LGBTQ+ events.
In response, Komenda wrote a comment criticizing the policy, citing two Bible verses condemning homosexual practices. Angered by his remarks, the store’s management dismissed him.
Yet the Regional Court ruled that his termination was unlawful and ordered his reinstatement. IKEA challenged the decision but lost again at the top court.
The court based its decision on the need for workplaces that were “free of ideological indoctrination ” and where staff could express their values and beliefs.
INCLUSIVE CULTURE
The court ruled that IKEA’s definition of inclusive culture was unsatisfactory as it failed to tolerate alternative views.
“If we define an inclusive culture as one that fully integrates diverse employees through representation, openness, and fairness, then the exclusion of the plaintiff from the employee community due to his religious beliefs and differing worldview contradicts the appellant’s own rhetoric of inclusivity,” the court stated.
Paweł Szafraniec of the Ordo Iuris Ordo think-tank’s Centre for Litigation, who acted as attorneys for Komenda, said the Supreme Court’s verdict as a landmark decision for employee freedom of speech.
“With this decision, the Supreme Court strengthens the barrier against big companies imposing leftist ideology on their employees, disciplining and ultimately firing those who refuse to conform,” the statement said.
Szafraniec added he also felt the court’s verdict defended Christian values in Poland, a heavily Catholic nation that shrugged off decades of communist dictatorship in 1989.
“The court also reinforced the right of Christians to defend their values, especially in Poland, where they make up a significant part of society,” he wrote.
LGBTQ+ ACTIVISTS
The ruling came amid an ongoing debate about this issue in other former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe, including Hungary, where the right-wing government criticized LGBTQ+ activists.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government suggested that Hungary’s annual Budapest Pride march should be in a “closed venue” this year rather than on a city center avenue as in previous years, citing “child protection.”
Orbán, a close ally of U.S. President Donald J. Trump, told supporters on Saturday that Pride organizers “should not even bother” this year as the event would be a “waste of money and time” without going into detail.
For decades, Pride participants processed down Andrássy Avenue, a spacious, tree-lined street in Budapest’s city center not far from the Worthy News Europe Bureau.
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