The St. Petersburg City Court upheld the decision to discriminate against a transgender woman who was dismissed due to a list of “prohibited professions”.
Almost a three-year business ended, finally, with the complete victory of Anastasia Vasilyeva. Today, June 16, the St. Petersburg City Court completely rejected the printing house's appeal. The employer will pay 1.8 million rubles for discrimination. The interests of Anastasia in the court we represented in the person of Max Olenichev.
WHAT IS THE DEAL?
In July 2017, Anastasia Vasilieva was fired from the post of a printer, after she changed the gender marker in the documents. Formally, the employer referred to a list of 456 professions prohibited for women. This includes the work of the princess.
Anastasia turned to the Vykhod LGBT group for legal assistance and filed a lawsuit against the printing house demanding that the dismissal be unlawful and discriminatory; she herself should be reinstated in her previous position and recover moral damages of 50 thousand rubles.
In November 2017, the district court rejected Vasilyeva's lawsuit, not seeing the fact of discrimination. After that, “Exit” appealed the decision to the City Court, which in April 2018 left it unchanged. And only in December 2018 the Presidium of the City Court canceled all judicial acts and sent the case for a new consideration.
WHAT DID THE COURT FIND OUT?
During a new examination of the case, the examination showed that Anastasia can do the job of a princess and there are no contraindications for this: the list of professions prohibited for women is only related to the protection of motherhood in the narrow sense, birth and care for a newly born baby and only for this period. In other cases, no.
On April 9, 2019, the court recognized the dismissal as unlawful, reinstated Anastasia and decided to pay her 10,000 compensation for non-pecuniary damage and 1,850,000 rubles - compensation for a forced absence.
The defendant company with German capital (seemingly the bearer of European values) tried to challenge the court decision. However, today the City Court completely refused her.
“The court supported our position: every woman has the right to choose a profession, and the absolute prohibition on such a choice, established in Russia by a list of professions prohibited for women, is a manifestation of discrimination. This is in line with the clarifications of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women against Russia, ”says Max Olenichev, legal adviser to the LGBT group Vyhod. “And while the list of professions has not been canceled, transgender women who have suffered from its use can be protected in national courts. This decision will give strength and confidence to transgender people in protecting their rights in Russia. ”
The story of Anastasia Vasilyeva is the first case in Russia when a transgender woman openly defended her labor rights in court.