The Hungarian Commissioner for Fundamental Rights has found that an employer who did not provide a transgender employee with the use of changing rooms and restrooms in the workplace in accordance with his or her gender identity violated the requirement of equal treatment, the Háttér (Background) Society, the largest and oldest Hungarian NGO for LGBTQ rights, said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to the company, Petra had been working at the workplace for several years, when she came out as a transgender and later underwent non-permanent surgeries. According to information from the Háttér Society, the transgender worker has since repeatedly asked her employer to use the women’s locker room and washroom.
The employer has initiated a poll among women workers to see if they submit to this proposal. The majority of staff voted down.
The transgender staff person, with the help of the Background Society, turned to the Equal Treatment DG of the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, where it was found that the transgender had suffered a disadvantage in the workplace.
The decision ordered the cessation of the offense and required the employer to provide the transgender employee in some way with the use of changing rooms and restrooms that took into account his or her gender identity.
Last May, Hungary passed a law that only allows the use of birth gender in official identification papers.
