Catholic teacher fired for upholding traditional Christian values
In Austria, a Catholic teacher has been banned from teaching for two years after being sacked for defending traditional moral values at public demonstrations. The teacher was also ordered to pay €24,000 in legal costs.
In 2023, Nelsi Pelinku, a young teacher from Austria, was sacked from the Salzburg school where he worked after taking part in demonstrations in defence of traditional moral values. A devout Catholic, Mr Pelinku took part in demonstrations in support of the traditional concept of the family. He also took part in demonstrations criticising the government's implementation of certain Covid measures and of right-wing political groups.
The dismissal followed the publication of Mr Pelinku's private information by a radical left-wing website. The publication included photographs showing his participation in the said demonstrations. As the court proved, the events took place before Mr Pelinku started working at the school and his beliefs were never represented in the classroom. Nevertheless, the school confronted Mr Pelinku and later dismissed him for "serious misconduct".
According to NIUS, one of the reasons given in the dismissal letter was that Pelinku had criticised some of the teaching methods used at the school, such as the 'team teaching' format. Another reason given was that the teacher had violated the freedom of the press at the demonstrations, as he 'obstructed the coverage of public demonstrations (...) by deliberately holding up an umbrella'.
The teacher is also said to have torn up a flyer from an Austrian LGBTQ association advertising training for under-fourteen-year-olds, including on transgenderism, which was on display in the teacher's room. Pelinku admitted that 'it was a mistake', for which he apologised to the headmistress.
Following his dismissal, Mr Pelinku sued the Land Salzburg for unfair dismissal. In its ruling, the court acknowledged that "if the plaintiff's participation in the rallies were to be considered a reason for dismissal, this would result in a discriminatory termination of the employment relationship on the basis of ideology". The court also confirmed that Mr Pelinku had not committed "serious misconduct" and that participation in public demonstrations is protected by the right to freedom of expression and assembly. Therefore, the court found that his dismissal was unjustified.
However, the Salzburg school administration appealed the decision and the court of second instance ruled in their favour on a technical point. After his dismissal, Pelinku applied to two public schools in the province of Salzburg, stating in his application that his employment at the first school had ended on 31 July. The court interpreted this as an implicit acceptance of his dismissal, which invalidated his right to sue for unlawful dismissal.
Now the young teacher has to pay 24,000 euros in legal costs and cannot continue to work as a teacher because the court has banned him from doing so for two years. In an interview with NIUS, Mr Pelinku commented on the decision: “When I tell about the case, I realize how clownish the whole thing is. We do not live in any real democracy."
Source: nius.de, christenschutz.at
Image: symbolic image by Hans from Pixabay