Tag: bezskuteczność wypowiedzenia

Oral termination of employment contract

In practice, there are many cases where the employer first terminates the employment contract in writing, and a few days later – in the second letter, gives the reason for the notice. Is this way of terminating the employment contract?

From the literal wording of the provision of art. 30 § 4 of the Labor Code – the employer should terminate the employment contract in the form of a statement in one letter. Therefore, it should be assumed that the employer violates this article if he gives notice in one letter and gives the reason in another – later.

However, in one of its judgments, the Supreme Court indicated that the employer may state the reason justifying termination of the employment contract in a separate letter delivered to the employee earlier or simultaneously with the letter containing the termination of the contract (reference number I PKN 331/98). Subsequently, an indication of the reason by the employer will be treated as no reason, otherwise the employment contract will be fictitiously terminated.

Another issue is the admissibility of terminating an employment contract orally. Although the Labor Code mentions written notice, it does not mean that oral dismissal is ineffective. It is worth remembering that the oral termination of the employment contract is effective and has legal effects, e.g. the notice period and the deadline for seeking redress against a former employer. The same applies to the possibility of verbally concluding an employment contract.

KSJ Legal Law Firm has extensive experience in matters of labor law, including those regarding unjustified or fictitious termination of the employment contract. We advise at every stage of the proceedings, from the preparation of a legal opinion to obtaining a final decision before the court of second instance.

Attorney-at-law Joanna Susło

KJS Legal Kancelaria Adwokacka – Law firm in Wrocław

Tel. 668-841-990

[email protected]

Advocate – Wrocław – Labour law

Employee claims in the event of termination of the employment contract

In practice, there is no shortage of cases where the termination of employment contract received by the employee is unjustified or violates the provisions of labor law. In such situations, our lawyers draw up an appeal against such termination of the employment contract and represent employees in the labor court.

In such a case, the employee may request that the termination be terminated – so-called declare it to be unauthorized and ineffective. Such a request will be accepted by the labor court, but only until the terminated contract is still in progress, i.e. until the end of the notice period. In practice, this rarely happens.

If the notice period has expired and the request to determine the ineffectiveness of the termination cannot be accepted by the labor court, the employee may request:

– reinstatement to work on previous conditions (so-called restitution claim) or

– compensation (in the amount of remuneration for the period from 2 weeks to 3 months, but not lower than the remuneration for the notice period).

It is up to the employee to choose one of the claims listed above that he or she will want to assert before the labor court. There is an exception to this rule. If the employee requests reinstatement and the labor court, based on the evidence gathered in the case, considers that such reinstatement is impossible (e.g. the job has been liquidated) or would be pointless (e.g. due to the dispute between the employee and the employer), then in such a situation can only award the employee compensation.

An employee who started work as a result of reinstatement to work, is entitled to remuneration for remaining unemployed, but not more than for 2 months, and when the notice period is 3 months – not more than 1 month.

The employer may refuse to re-employ an employee if, within 7 days of reinstatement, he has not reported readiness to start work immediately, unless the deadline is exceeded for reasons beyond the employee’s control.

An appeal against the termination of an employment contract shall be lodged with the labor court within 21 days of the delivery of the letter terminating the employment contract. The appeal can be combined with a claim for payment of overdue remuneration, e.g. for overtime or night hours, as well as with a case to establish the existence of an employment relationship.

The KJS Legal law firm successfully represents employees before the labor court. Our assistance includes pre-trial, mediation, court and enforcement proceedings. We edit settlements – agreements concluded by the parties (employees and employers) before initiating a case in court and court settlements

Attorney-at-law Joanna Susło

KJS Legal Kancelaria Adwokacka – Law firm in Wrocław

Tel. 668-841-990

[email protected]

Advocate – Wrocław – Labour Law in Poland