Court dismissed lawsuit of a fired teacher

Ex-teacher Oto Žarnay, now an MP for OĽaNO-NOVA, was complaining about being laid off after referring to corruption at his school. He wants to appeal.

Oto ŽarnayOto Žarnay (Source: TASR)

The district court in Košice turned down a lawsuit submitted by Žarnay, who taught at the Košice-based Business Academy on Polárna Street. He claims that he lost his job after he had pointed to dubious contract on legal services to the school and alleged that some €80,000 was mismanaged.

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He wanted the court to acknowledge that the notice from May 2013 was invalid and receive compensation for lost wages, the TASR newswire reported.

The judge explained in the ruling that the school “as an employer fulfilled all substantive conditions to terminate an employment relationship with an employee for organisational reasons”. The decision pertained to decreasing the number of pupils by 37 in the 2013-2014 school year. As a result, Žarnay was made redundant, she continued.

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Read also: Prosecutor’s Office turns down complaint of sacked whistleblower Žarnay Read more 

If the court admitted Žarnay’s complaint, it would be a subjective decision and violation of the legal certainty of the participants of this and also other proceedings. Not even the testimonies proved that the employer wanted to get rid of Žarnay in particular, the judge said, as reported by TASR.

Žarnay has responded to the ruling that he will appeal to the regional court.

“I think that the judge did not take our arguments and evidence into consideration, thus we have no other possibility than to appeal,” Žarnay said, as quoted by TASR, adding that the court did not judge the purpose of the dismissal, only its form.

He is disappointed from the verdict, adding that teachers who are in a similar situation may feel insecure.

Read also: Supreme Audit Office: Fired ex-teacher Žarnay was right Read more 

While headmaster of the business academy Peter Ivan has refuted the claims about non-transparent use of money, the financial inspection of the Košice Self-Governing Region’s Office confirmed in the past that the school did not observe the principle of transparency when obtaining legal services. As a result, it decided that the school will use only the services of lawyers who work for the Košice Self-Governing Region’s Office.

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Moreover, the inspection of the Supreme Audit Office confirmed that the school did not need the legal services and revealed several flaws in the public procurement. The school disagreed with the findings and submitted a lawsuit against the revelations, TASR reported.

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