Ordinary termination

The employer must have a valid reason for termination of the employment contract, and the employee may challenge the validity of the dismissal in court

Both the employee and the employer can ordinarily terminate the employment contract.

The employee can ordinarily terminate the employment contract without stating the reason for termination, but has the obligation to complete the notice period prescribed by law or determined by the employment contract.

Types of ordinary termination

The employer may ordinarily terminate the employment contract if there is a valid reason to do so. There are three types of ordinary terminations:

• dismissal due to business reasons – “redundancies”;
• dismissal due to personal reasons;
• dismissal conditioned by the misconduct of the employee;
• dismissal due to unsatisfactory performance during the probationary period.

The dismissal must be in writing, with an explanation (if given by the employer), and must be delivered to the person being dismissed.

Redundancies

The employer may dismiss the employee due to business reasons if the need to perform a certain job ceases for economic, technical or organisational reasons. These can be, for example, a decrease in production, the introduction of new technologies or changes in the market due to which the company has to lay off a certain number of employees in order to continue its business activities.

After the dismissal due to business reasons, the employer may not employ another employee in the same workplace for six months.

If the employee worked without interruption for at least two years before the dismissal, they are entitled to severance pay.

Dismissal due to personal reasons

The employer may dismiss the employee due to personal reasons if the employee is unable to perform their work duties properly due to certain permanent characteristics or abilities. These are, for example, cases when an employee does not have the necessary knowledge or ability to perform a certain job due to an illness or permanent injury.

If the employee worked without interruption for at least two years before the dismissal, they are entitled to severance pay.

Dismissal conditioned by the misconduct of the employee

If the employee violates the obligations arising from the employment relationship, the employer may terminate the employment contract. The employer may dismiss the employee in this way if, for example, the employee improperly performs or neglects the obligations from the employment contract, violates operating rules related to occupational health and safety, is late for work without a valid reason, comes to work drunk or under the influence of drugs, causes material damage to the employer's property and the like.

Prior to ordinary termination of employment conditioned by the misconduct of the employee, the employer must notify the employee of the employment obligations in writing and indicate the possibility of dismissal in the event of continued breach of these obligations and allow the employee to present their defence, unless there are justifiable circumstances that exempt the employer of doing so.

With this type of dismissal, the employee is not entitled to severance pay, and the notice period is determined in the length of half of the notice periods determined by law.

Dismissal due to unsatisfactory performance during the probationary period

If a probationary period is agreed in the employment contract, the employer may terminate the employment contract of the employee who did not satisfy the expectations during the probationary period.

The notice period is at least seven days.

Challenging the dismissal

If the employee believes that their employer has unlawfully dismissed them, they may, within 15 days from the date on which they received the decision on the dismissal, file a complaint with the employer and request that they reconsider their decision to dismiss.

The employer can respond positively to it within 15 days from receiving the complaint. If the employer does not respond or responds negatively within the given deadline, the employee can file a lawsuit before the competent municipal court within a further period of 15 days.

Information on the locally competent court with the necessary contact details can be found on the website Judge's Web.