The Supreme Court has voiced its opinion concerning four leaders of the strike who have demanded that they be re-employed. They were dismissed by the employer after the strike had ended on the grounds of breaking the law.

All judgements of the Supreme Court were in favour of the employer. In the case of the three employees, the court has eventually dismissed the claims regarding re-employment, and as far as the fourth employee is concerned, the court has overturned the judgement which stated that the employee in question should be re-employed on the grounds that the Regional Court, which issued the judgement, committed a gross violation of law.

The court's statements are decisive and unequivocal: “Both plaintiffs used active physical aggression towards other employees. This is a drastic action. The employer should not tolerate aggressive behaviour during strikes. Health and human dignity are of utmost value. The employer should protect these values and respond accordingly when they are being violated at the workplace.” (IPK 221/10).

The statement of reasons of another judgement reads as follows: “In the case of the plaintiff, the accusations concerning his behaviour which was harmful to the interests of the employer and the employees, i.e. it posed a threat to their health and life by preventing the performance of fire safety activities, is not connected with the operations of the trade union, although it took place during the strike. Such behaviour on the part of the plaintiff was justifiably deemed as exceptionally reprehensible (IPK 278/10).

A cassation appeal was accepted filed by the employer’s attorney against the Regional Court’s judgement which found that one of the employees should be re-employed. “the appeal is of course substantiated on the grounds of a gross violation of Article 378.1 of the Code of Civil Procedure by the judgement which was appealed against. The behaviour which the plaintiff was said to exhibit could, in case of being confirmed during the hearing of evidence, be found as providing grounds for terminating the employment agreement by the employer without notice under Article 52.1.1 of the Labour Code (IPK 41/10).

The strike is not an excuse for violating the law, which even in such an event remains binding upon every citizen. During the strike and afterwards, the law was violated on many occasions at the Budryk mine, and we could not remain oblivious to this fact, we had to make those responsible face the consequences, stresses Jarosław Zagórowski, the President of JSW.