Termination of a contract of employment by the employer without notice is regulated under Articles 52 and 53 of the Labour Code. The grounds for termination set forth under Article 52 are relied on more often – this is what is commonly referred to as disciplinary dismissal. While the term is colloquial and the Labour Code does not use it, this pejorative designation in fact means termination of an employment contract without notice, that is a definitive dismissal of the employee through his or her fault with immediate effect.
Article 52 of the Labour Code lists three categories of breaches on the grounds of which the employer may dismiss the employee without notice.
The first of these is a major breach of the employee’s fundamental duties. This is the most frequent cause for the so-called disciplinary dismissal. A major breach of the employee’s fundamental duties is understood to mean such conduct by the employee (action or omission) that allows attribution of wilful misconduct or gross negligence to him or her.
The second category includes crimes committed by the employee during the term of the contract of employment that prevent his or her continued employment in the position held, if the crime is evident or has been confirmed by a non-appealable court judgement.
The third category is a loss, for reasons attributable to the employee, of the qualification necessary to perform his or her work in the position held. The qualification means any formal authorisation or certification to perform the job of, e.g., a physician, attorney, driver, or architect. The loss must be culpable.
Termination of a contract of employment without notice is also regulated under Article 53 of the Labour Code, which lists circumstances in which the employer may but does not have to terminate a contract of employment with the employee without notice. Importantly, the provision relates to situations in which the Labour Code does not require termination to be through the employee’s fault. The employer may terminate a contract of employment without notice if the employee’s inability to perform work due to an illness lasts more than three months, providing that the employee has been employed at the employer’s for up to six months. However, if the employee has been employed by the relevant employer for at least six months or if the inability to work was caused by an accident at work or an occupational disease, the employee’s inability to work due to an illness should last longer than the combined period of receiving pay and welfare and rehabilitation benefits on those grounds in the first three months. Further, the employer may terminate a contract of employment with the employee without notice in the event of the employee’s justified absence from work for other reasons than referred to above, lasting over a month.
Unlike in the case of termination of a contract of employment without notice through the employee’s fault, with the exception of the immediate loss of employment, the above employment termination procedure has no adverse effects. On the contrary, it vests the employee with a special privilege, namely to report his or her readiness to resume work immediately after the reasons for the termination have ceased – within a period of six months from the termination, and in the case of receiving rehabilitation benefits – after they are no longer provided. In turn, the employer is under obligation to reinstate such employee if it still has a suitable position.
A contract of employment cannot be terminated without notice if the employee is absent from work for reasons of taking care of a child, while receiving an allowance on those grounds, and when the employee is kept in isolation on account of a contagious disease, while receiving pay and benefits on such ground. Neither can a contract of employment be terminated without notice once the employee reports for work after the reasons for his or her absence have ceased.
A notice of termination of an employment contract should be in writing and should state the grounds and reasons for termination of the employment relationship with immediate effect. It is also very important for the termination notice to include information on the legal remedies available to the employee.