On February 9, Justice Minister Viera Petríková (Movement for Democratic Slovakia, HZDS) was invited by the Parliamentary Constitutional Committee to report about the steps her ministry is conducting in the case of the mass lawsuits filled by hundreds of judges involving alleged discrimination in salaries compared to Special Court judges, the SITA newswire wrote.
The committee decided unanimously on summonsing Petríková following a proposal submitted by former justice minister Daniel Lipšic (Christian Democrats, KDH). Several judges filed the lawsuits back in 2007, pointing to the fact that the judges on the Special Court were receiving €4,000 per month more. The lawsuits were based on Slovakia’s Non-discrimination Act, and the state may now pay tens of thousands of euros in compensations if the judges succeed at the courts.
Last week, a Bratislava district court decided that the state is to pay almost €90,000 in compensation to Trenčín Regional Court judge Ondrej Gáborík. Later it emerged that several hundreds of judges have submitted similar complaints.
Lipšic reacted that the Non-Discrimination Act deals with discrimination based on sex, religious conviction, race, national and ethnic origin, age, health handicaps and sexual orientation. He further criticised the fact that the ruling was made by a judge that also had submitted a lawsuit on the same matter, therefore the judgement could not have been impartial. Petríková said later last week that the ministry will appeal against the ruling.
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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