The labor court in Berlin has declared the dismissal of an editor at Deutsche Welle because of anti-Semitic statements to be invalid. The court announced on Thursday in Berlin that the action for protection against unfair dismissal had been granted and the broadcaster had been sentenced to continue employing the editor. The employer had claimed that the employee had repeatedly made anti-Israel and anti-Semitic comments in other media. An appeal has already been lodged against the verdict, it said.
Anti-Semitic statements could be a reason for an extraordinary dismissal, it said. However, as far as statements are concerned that were made at a time before the existence of a contractual relationship with the broadcaster, there was no breach of contract required for a behavior-related termination due to the lack of an existing contract at that time.
According to the court, even requests to speak during previous employment on a fee basis cannot simply be assumed to “break through” as a breach of duty to a later employment relationship. According to its own statements, Deutsche Welle had suspended five employees and commissioned an investigation after allegations of anti-Semitism against the Arabic-language editorial team. The external experts commissioned found evidence of isolated misconduct, but no structural anti-Semitism.