The Court of Justice of the European Union on Thursday ruled unlawful a law in Poland that allows discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in the hiring of self-employed workers and warns that the freedom of the hiring party to choose may be restricted in order to preserve important values in a democratic society, such as equality.
The case dates back to December 2017, when a freelancer at the Polish public broadcaster was fired after posting a video on the internet calling for tolerance of same-sex couples and was announced that they would no longer underwrite contracts.
The affected person took the case to the courts, which are now referring to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to ask whether the directive on equal treatment in employment applies and therefore precludes Polish regulations that allow refusing to conclude a contract with a self-employed person on the basis of his or her sexual orientation.
In its Thursday ruling, the Luxembourg-based Court considers that a self-employed person may also be placed in a situation of vulnerability comparable to that of a dismissed employee if the employer terminates the relationship.
Therefore, reasons the judgment, the decision not to renew the contract because of the sexual orientation of the contractor falls within the scope of the Directive.
According to the Court of Justice, moreover, the fact that the Polish legislature provided for a number of exceptions to the freedom to choose the other contracting party shows that it itself considered that it could not be regarded as necessary to guarantee freedom of contract in a democratic society.
Finally, the European Court recalls that to admit that the freedom to contract allows refusing to contract with a person on the basis of his sexual orientation would be to deprive the directive and the prohibition of any discrimination based on that ground of their useful effect.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
