By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WARSAW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Poland’s Supreme Court has thrown out an appeal by the Swedish furniture giant IKEA against a Christian employee who was fired for criticizing the LGBTQ+ movement quoting the Bible.
This week’s verdict, as seen by Worthy News Thursday, concerned a ruling by the lower Kraków Regional Court, which ordered IKEA to keep Janusz Komenda in his job.
The legal wrangling began in 2019 after IKEA published an article on its internal intranet computer network asking staff to participate in pro-LGBTQ+ events.
In response, Komenda wrote a comment criticizing the policy, citing two Bible verses condemning homosexual practices. Angered by his remarks, the store’s management dismissed him.
Yet the Regional Court ruled that his termination was unlawful and ordered his reinstatement. IKEA challenged the decision but lost again at the top court.
The court based its decision on the need for workplaces that were “free of ideological indoctrination ” and where staff could express their values and beliefs.
INCLUSIVE CULTURE
The court ruled that IKEA’s definition of inclusive culture was unsatisfactory as it failed to tolerate alternative views.
“If we define an inclusive culture as one that fully integrates diverse employees through representation, openness, and fairness, then the exclusion of the plaintiff from the employee community due to his religious beliefs and differing worldview contradicts the appellant’s own rhetoric of inclusivity,” the court stated.
Paweł Szafraniec of the Ordo Iuris Ordo think-tank’s Centre for Litigation, who acted as attorneys for Komenda, said the Supreme Court’s verdict as a landmark decision for employee freedom of speech.
“With this decision, the Supreme Court strengthens the barrier against big companies imposing leftist ideology on their employees, disciplining and ultimately firing those who refuse to conform,” the statement said.
Szafraniec added he also felt the court’s verdict defended Christian values in Poland, a heavily Catholic nation that shrugged off decades of communist dictatorship in 1989.
“The court also reinforced the right of Christians to defend their values, especially in Poland, where they make up a significant part of society,” he wrote.
LGBTQ+ ACTIVISTS
The ruling came amid an ongoing debate about this issue in other former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe, including Hungary, where the right-wing government criticized LGBTQ+ activists.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government suggested that Hungary’s annual Budapest Pride march should be in a “closed venue” this year rather than on a city center avenue as in previous years, citing “child protection.”
Orbán, a close ally of U.S. President Donald J. Trump, told supporters on Saturday that Pride organizers “should not even bother” this year as the event would be a “waste of money and time” without going into detail.
For decades, Pride participants processed down Andrássy Avenue, a spacious, tree-lined street in Budapest’s city center not far from the Worthy News Europe Bureau.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
The Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted a lower court injunction that had blocked the Trump administration from carrying out mass layoffs and sweeping structural changes across the federal government, allowing the president’s ambitious reorganization plan to move forward while litigation continues.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a sweeping escalation in his global tariff policy, issuing formal letters to eight more countries warning that steep import duties will take effect on August 1 unless new trade agreements are reached. The move marks the latest salvo in Trump’s aggressive “America First” trade agenda, which he says is designed to correct decades of unfair trade practices and ballooning U.S. deficits.
Negotiations between Israel and Hamas are inching toward a potential 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal, but a core dispute remains unresolved: the deployment of Israeli troops in Gaza throughout the truce period. While both sides agree that significant progress has been made, talks in Doha are intensifying over troop presence, humanitarian aid delivery, and the long-term status of the war.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed Wednesday that it has conducted a series of targeted ground operations in southern Lebanon aimed at dismantling Hezbollah’s military presence and preventing the Iran-backed terror group from re-establishing infrastructure near the border. The raids, described as “special, targeted operations,” were carried out over the past several days in response to repeated ceasefire violations by Hezbollah.
Despite a previously signed agreement by Christian leaders to avoid legal action, the governor of West Java has called for full prosecution of a violent June 27 mob attack on a Christian youth retreat, describing it as a “serious criminal matter” that must not go unpunished.
In a sweeping move to safeguard America’s agricultural integrity and national security, the Trump administration has unveiled a comprehensive action plan to ban Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland and root out foreign influence in the agricultural sector.
Ten people have been arrested so far in a “planned ambush” of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in north Texas.