Caretaker with swastika tattoo was 'unfairly dismissed' by Lidl

The Employment Tribunal has ruled that the supermarket chain Lidl failed to properly investigate the case of one of its caretakers who caused alarm to colleagues when, among other things, he showed off a swastika tattoo.

It ruled that Mr I Horvarth, from Hungary, was unfairly dismissed following various complaints against him.

In one incident, a Lidl employee, referred to as SH, alleged that Horvarth had either “kicked her or deliberately hit her in the leg with a trolley”.

Another employee, referred to as MB, said Horvarth had shown off a tattoo of the swastika symbol on his arm. Horvarth said that it was “his country’s national symbol”. MB said there were tattoos of other far-right symbols as well.

Horvarth was suspended pending further investigations into alleged assault and bullying behaviour.

He attended an investigatory meeting in which he denied hitting SH deliberately. He insisted the tattoo was a Buddhist symbol, not a swastika, and claimed that MB and SH made the allegations against him because they “did not like foreigners”.

Following a disciplinary hearing in July 2019, Horvarth was summarily dismissed for gross misconduct.

The tribunal said it was clear that the tattoo closely resembled the Nazi swastika as it “oriented clockwise and tilted at a 45 degree angle”. The Buddhist symbol is anti-clockwise and not tilted.

However, it still found that Horvarth’s dismissal was unfair because Lidl’s investigation left “a great many questions unanswered” and Horvath was not given an opportunity to respond to the allegations against him.

Judge Miller said the inquiries were not conducted in “a way that a reasonable employer of the size and administrative resources of a large supermarket chain such as Lidl would do”.  The allegations made by MB and SH were “taken at face value”.

Compensation will be decided at a separate hearing.

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