Ministry of Culture questions decision to punish employees of Lithuanian Railways

The Ministry of Culture, responsible for all issues of the national minorities in Lithuania, expressed its doubts regarding the managerial decision of “Lietuvos geležinkeliai” to reduce the remuneration of the employees who were not using the state language when exercising their duties. The Ministry does not question the internal order of the  company, only two cases of partly reducing a welder’s and another technical worker’s remuneration for not using the Lithuanian language.

The Ministry has examined the following documents: the decision of the company’s general director S. Dailydka no. Į–789 „On the categories of the state language knowledge” dated 2007-10-24 and the decision no. Į–377 „On the categories of the state language knowledge” dated 2009-05-11, and has decided that the documents do not contravene the Lithuanian Constitution or the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities as the requirement of the state language knowledge does not imply the obligation of using it, unless there is a clear need for that.

The Ministry of Culture has decided, however, that the decision of the cargo transport company’s general director no. Į(DK)-340 dated 2007-11-05 „On the categories of the state language knowledge” complies with the law as it includes a list of company’s posts leaving out welders.

The case of punishing the Lithuanian Railway’s employees has been discovered by EFHR; EFHR made an intervention in August 2011 (http://www.efhr.eu/2011/11/24/request-to-jsc-lietuvos-gele%C5%BEinkeliai/?lang=en). At the moment, the case is one of the biggest incidents concerning the national minorities in Lithuania.

na podstawie www.delfi.lt

EFPCz

Tłumaczenie Małgorzata Karaś w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Małgorzata Karaś within the Framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu