106
annual report 2012
2012-26. Summoning an employee to a talk regarding her
loyalty following the publication of a debate letter was
in violation of the rules on freedom of expression for
public employees
In a debate letter published in a newspaper, a woman had criticised Danish
museums for being more focused on visitor experiences than on research. She
alleged that this was also the case at the museum where she herself worked.
After the letter had been published, the woman was summoned to a talk by the
museum management. It was stated in the e-mail in which she was summoned
to the talk that the subject of the talk was her loyalty towards the museum.
The case occasioned the Ombudsman to go through the circumstances in which
an authority has a legitimate reason for talking to an employee regarding utterances made by the employee. The Ombudsman did not find that there was a legitimate reason for summoning the woman to a talk. On the contrary, he found
that the museum’s reaction to her letter in the newspaper was likely to cause
uncertainty among the museum staff about their right to express themselves in
public. According to the Ombudsman, this was in violation of the rules on the
freedom of expression for public employees. The Ombudsman therefore agreed
with the museum when it later stated that it was regrettable that the woman
had been summoned to a talk about her loyalty.
H. MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT
No cases concluded in 2012 were selected for publication in the Annual Report.
I. MINISTRY OF HOUSING, URBAN AND RURAL AFFAIRS
No cases concluded in 2012 were selected for publication in the Annual Report.
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents