Information Note on the Court’s case-law 237
February 2020
Oleynik v. Russia (communicated case) - 4086/18
Article 14
Discrimination
Homosexual denied employment by private company: communicated
After a job interview, Ms P, a person in charge of an educational project in a private foundation, confirmed that the foundation was willing to hire the applicant as a training manager. Then they continued to correspond via a social network. Ms P asked the applicant if he was gay, and specified that the foundation “adheres to traditional views” and that it would not hire a homosexual person. As the applicant confirmed that he was gay, she put an end to the conversation. The applicant received an e-mail from Ms P confirming that he could not be employed by the foundation. No explicit reasons were given for the refusal to employ the applicant.
The applicant brought a civil claim against the foundation, claiming that he had been denied employment on discriminatory grounds. He provided to the court copies, certified by a public notary, of his conversations with Ms P, together with a screenshot of the foundation’s home webpage, where Ms P was listed as a person in charge of an educational project. The foundation submitted, without providing any evidence, that Ms P had never worked for it.
The domestic courts concluded that no infringement of the applicant’s rights could be established.
The applicant complains that his denial of employment was of a discriminatory nature and that the domestic courts did not answer his arguments in this respect.
Communicated under Article 14 in conjunction with Article 8 and under Article 6 of the Convention.
© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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