The dismissed teacher is a Polish-language teacher with 22 years of professional experience. The woman returned to work at Miejskiego Zespołu Szkół nr 3 (MZS nr 3) after maternity leave, in April 2012. Her return to school after giving birth turned out to be surprisingly difficult.

Among the Polish-language teachers employed at MZS nr 3, she had the highest qualifications in the subject and held credentials that allowed her to be employed in five different positions. None of the criteria used to reduce staff positions at MZS nr 3 applied to her.

With her long work experience, the high level of competence she had gained during her professional career, and her inclusion in the school's staffing plan before maternity leave, it had not even crossed her mind that she could be dismissed.

But after returning to work, the woman learned that another teacher was already working in her position and that she herself was no longer needed. Conciliatory talks with the headteacher produced no results. A month later, the headteacher dismissed her.

The woman appealed the decision, which she found incomprehensible, to the Labour Court, demanding reinstatement in her previous position. She won the case at the end of January 2013. The judgment is not final.

Because she was a bad teacher

When the dismissed teacher took the matter to court, it turned out that the arguments presented during the trial were completely different from those given to her when she was handed her notice of termination.

She was attacked ruthlessly in the courtroom. She heard that she supposedly had not been involved in school life, that her work was allegedly poor, that the classes she taught supposedly did not achieve high exam results, that she assessed students too rarely and had not awarded some “required number” of grades to students.

The court documents described her work as the weakest and the worst, and called her incompetent. She was also accused of taking sick leave too often (the period concerned the time when she was pregnant). The same documents also contained defamatory information about her personal family life.

The dismissed woman bitterly admitted that not only her work but also she herself had been subjected to an unfair assessment, and that she had faced ordinary slander. Her faith in human honesty was put to a severe test. She regarded the explanation of why she, specifically, was being dismissed as Machiavellianism in a modern form.

“It looked as though I was being punished for having a child,” says the Polish-language teacher. “It is a paradox at a time when people loudly lament the declining number of children in Poland. Unfortunately, family policy in our country has once again proved to be a myth,” the embittered woman adds.

Justice has been done…?

In her latest court submission, the teacher additionally pointed to the headteacher's staffing decisions at MZS nr 3. In her view, the headteacher could have retained the Polish-language teacher's position had she not employed a retired teacher (bringing him back from retirement).

As the dismissed woman argued, this staffing decision was inconsistent with the president's guidelines. The letter sent to headteachers clearly stated that retired teachers could be employed only when there was a shortage of professionally active teachers on the labour market.

After the successful trial and any possible appeal, the Polish-language teacher will probably be reinstated, but her victory will be pyrrhic. The teacher does not believe in a pleasant atmosphere or the possibility of working without stress under the headteacher who tried so determinedly to dismiss her.

“I will return to school because I like this work,” she says. “I hope my case will lead to positive changes when staff positions are reduced again, and serve as an example of how not to act,” the Polish-language teacher adds.

(information: G.H.)