LRT chief asks council to reconsider workplace breach finding

Lithuanian National Radio and Television director-general Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė has asked the broadcaster’s council to reconsider its finding that she breached her work duties, LRT reported.

“I disagree with the LRT Council’s decision to find that I breached my work duties, so today I asked the council, in accordance with the law, to reconsider its resolution,” she wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė said the disputed decision involved a complex issue concerning the relationship between procurement rules, the General Data Protection Regulation, confidentiality, suppliers’ interests and transparency requirements. She also said the council’s resolution included statements that did not reflect reality and that the disciplinary measure was imposed outside the time limits set by the Labour Code.

She argued that the council had not specified what unlawful act she had committed, which duty she had failed to perform, how she was at fault or what consequences had resulted from her actions.

Council issued a warning

At a meeting in late September, the LRT Council found that Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė had breached her duties because publicly available programme procurement reports did not disclose data about individual service providers. The violation was not classified as gross misconduct, which could have led to her dismissal.

Council chair Mindaugas Jurkynas said the director-general had been given a warning. If she commits a similar breach within the next year, the council would consider terminating her employment contract. After the council’s decision, Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė called it psychological pressure but said she had not decided whether to take the matter to court.

The Prosecutor General’s Office had identified problems with the undisclosed service-provider data in June. In early July, the LRT Council unanimously instructed the broadcaster’s administration to address the issues and explain their causes.

Amendments to the LRT law adopted by parliament in June allow the director-general to be dismissed before the end of their term, with the support of at least two-thirds of all council members, if they no longer meet the requirements for impeccable reputation or commit gross misconduct. The new dismissal procedure took effect when the law was signed; most other provisions will come into force several years later.