The Strasbourg court is investigating the invalidation of Hungarian teachers' right to strike, and in the process the government must explain why it is necessary to reduce the strict restrictions on teachers' right to association and the right to go to court, he writes. In his statement Hungarian Helsinki Committee.
In September 2022, the Teachers' Union (PSZ) and the Democratic Teachers' Union (PDSZ) appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, with the assistance of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and the Freedoms Association (TASZ), because the government had abolished teachers' right to strike.
Referring to the epidemiological situation, the government set minimum mandatory rules in a decree dated February 11, 2022, which means that childcare must be provided in schools and kindergartens, and certain lessons must be held in the event of a teachers' strike.
According to the teachers, the right to strike was unnecessarily and disproportionately restricted by the order to teach during a strike, because a potential strike would therefore cause minimal disruption to the employer's business, and the right to strike could not satisfy the pressure and resistance function.
The PSZ and PDSZ first appealed to the Constitutional Court on this grounds, but their application was rejected on formal grounds.
On the other hand, the European Court of Human Rights accepted the joint complaint filed by the Hungarian teachers' unions. The unions wrote in their complaint: By making the strike invisible, the government itself pushed the teachers to acts of civil disobedience. The result was the dismissal of the teachers.
“It is a new and encouraging development that the Strasbourg Court has now referred the complaint to the Hungarian State,” the statement said. This means that it has sent the unions’ petition to the government for comment, so that state representatives will have to justify before an independent international forum what was necessary to severely restrict teachers’ right to association and the right to attend school. The complainants can respond to this, after which the Strasbourg Court will decide on the right to strike that has been vacated for Hungarian teachers.
