Brno - Women judges are not entitled to part-time work, even if they have little children to look after and cannot work as much as before. And it is not a discrimination, the Czech Republic´s Supreme Court decided earlier this week.
The court dealt with a dispute between a Prague judge and the state represented by the Ministry of Justice.
It found that if a court is short of judges, its administration need not comply with part-time work requests.
The plaintiff lost the dispute despite the fact that judges (as well as other employees) are entitled by the law to request shorter working hours, and their employers must comply.
Ignoring women's rights
The claimant asked the chief judge of one of Prague´s district courts to be allowed to work for only 20 hours a week, because she looked after two children. The chief judge first okayed her request, but then overturned his decision, citing the lack of judges as the reason.
The judge then filed a suit against the state, claiming that it was discriminating women judges.
"It is an ignorance of rights, guaranteed by the law, which aim to protect the maternal mission of women employees therefore, it is a discrimination by gender," wrote the judge in her complaint. The state is to blame, she argued, because of its failure to secure a sufficient number of judges.
However, the Ministry of Justice, which represents the state in this dispute, insists that judges must submit their private lives to their profession and that every one of them is at work 24/7.
Collapse of the judiciary?
If the judge was to succeed, it would become a precedent, the ministry argued, adding that with the increasing number of women judges and their ever lower age, enabling women judges with children to request shorter working hours would result in the collapse of the whole judiciary.
Despite that fact, the judge won the first two rounds. The District Court of Prague-West and then also the Prague Regional Court acknowledged that she had been discriminated against. Both courts declared in their verdicts that the state cannot justify its conduct with the lack of judges, which is the result of its own policy.
However, the Ministry of Justice sent an appeal to the Supreme Court, which abated both verdicts. The Senate chaired by Justice Ljubomír Drápal found that this could not be a case of discrimination.
According to the Supreme Court ruling, the lack of judges can be a sufficient reason for not allowing them part-time work.
Not a discrimination
"Not only women, but also men are entitled to shorter working hours. Therefore, a discrimination by gender is out of question in this case," ruled the judges of the Supreme Court, adding that the plaintiff could also have considered the possibility of sharing the child care duties with her husband.
But the Supreme Court also stated that the judiciary is not at risk of collapse if individual courts with enough judges comply with the requests for shorter working hours by child-caring women or men in their employment.
"Judges looking after children under 15 years of age, as well as all pregnant judges are entitled to the adjustment of their weekly working hours, providing that no important operational reasons rule it out," the Supreme Court declared.
