Bern Inselspital appeals in legal dispute with doctor
Published: Thursday, Feb 29th 2024, 10:00
Updated At: Thursday, Feb 29th 2024, 10:01
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The Inselspital in Bern is lodging an appeal in the civil proceedings against a doctor. It is not comprehensible why the Inselgruppe should be obliged to promote the doctor in her absence after she has been released from her duties.
This means that the Bernese High Court will be the next to deal with the complex case. At the end of January, the doctor announced a decision by the Bern-Mittelland Regional Court of First Instance. She was partially vindicated.
Accordingly, the doctor would have been entitled to a higher share from a fee pool from mid-August 2014. According to the court, the fact that the hospital had already dismissed the woman at this time was not decisive. It could be assumed that the doctor had met all the requirements for a promotion and would therefore have been entitled to more money.
The doctor's lawyer, Rolf P. Steinegger, spoke of a "landmark ruling" at the end of January. It is not enough for companies to simply claim that they promote women, they also need to act accordingly.
The doctor had broken new legal ground in Switzerland with her action for promotion discrimination, said lawyer and equality expert Zita Küng, praising the ruling.
The ruling is a rejection of a corporate culture of secrecy when it comes to salary and promotion issues. Such decisions should not simply be made "freehand" at will. "This must now be made transparent and non-discriminatory," emphasized Küng.
Impaired trust
The relationship of trust with the doctor had been disturbed, the Insel-Spital Group announced on Thursday. It is incomprehensible, incomprehensible and unrealistic that employees on leave who have a disturbed relationship of trust with their superiors should be entitled to promotion.
Even active employees are not entitled to promotion, the hospital group stated in its press release. The hospital group is therefore lodging an appeal and intends to have the decision reviewed by the High Court.
This is all the more important because the scope of the first-instance decision is huge and could have an almost incalculable impact on the entire working world, as the archipelago writes in its press release.
Personal dispute or discrimination?
The hospital group sees the core of the legal dispute in a personal conflict between the doctor and her former superior. The doctor, in turn, considers herself to have been discriminated against by her employer on the grounds of gender.
The doctor was at the start of a promising career over ten years ago. She worked at the Inselspital in Bern as a senior physician. She claimed that she was not promoted in comparison to her male colleagues and made slower progress.
After the birth of her child, the young doctor wanted to reduce her workload, but Inselspital did not want her to do so. After a lengthy back and forth, the doctor was given notice in 2014.
She successfully took legal action against this retaliatory dismissal on the basis of the Equality Act. The hospital then reinstated the woman and immediately released her from her duties. The doctor still has this status today. In the meantime, she has built up a new career at another place of work.
The woman had claimed further discrimination before the Bern-Mittelland Regional Court - for example, that she had not been promoted or promoted as a woman. For this reason, she had also received less money from the private medical pool.
The Inselspital, on the other hand, also reads positive things from the first instance ruling: the doctor was not discriminated against on the basis of gender during her active employment. The court found that an expert opinion drawn up in this regard was "complete, consistent and comprehensible".
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