wadliwe wypowiedzenie umowy - KJS LEGAL Attorney-at-law Wroclaw, Poland

Deadline for termination due to employee’s fault?

In accordance with art. 52 § 2 of the Labor Code in Poland, termination of the employment contract without notice due to the fault of the employee may not take place after 1 month from the employer being aware of the circumstances justifying the termination of the contract.

According to the cited provision, the employer has one month to make a decision on dismissal. Thus, in the fifth week of the incident, the employer cannot terminate the contract on the employee’s fault. If such termination occurs, however, the employee’s claims against the employer will be updated.

Since when do we count the 1 month deadline? This time limit begins to run from the day on which the person authorized to terminate the employment contract or another person belonging – in the light of the organizational chart – to the management of the workplace receives information about such conduct of the employee.

In other words, the term specified in art. 52 § 2 of the Labor Code in Poland did not start running if another employee who was not authorized to terminate the employment contract learned about the circumstances justifying the termination of the employment contract. By the phrase “obtaining by the workplace information” should be understood messages sufficiently tested so that the manager of the workplace can gain a reasonable belief about the wrongdoing of the employee. This may require checking and hearing the employee being charged.

Therefore, if the employer checks the received information immediately and efficiently, in such a situation the deadline should be calculated from the moment of completing the internal verification procedure, verifying the information obtained by the employer about the employee’s behavior.

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.

Labour Lawyer Joanna Susło

KJS Legal Law Firm in Wrocław

Tel. 668-841-990

[email protected]

Advocate – Wrocław – KJS Legal – Lawyer

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.

Attorney-at-law Joanna Susło

KJS Legal Kancelaria Adwokacka – Law firm in Wrocław

Tel. 668-841-990

[email protected]

Advocate – Wrocław – Labour law

How to count the notice period?

An employment contract in Poland can be terminated:

1) by agreement of the parties

2) by declaration of one of the parties with a notice period (so-called termination of the employment contract with notice)

3) by declaration of one of the parties without notice (termination of the employment contract without notice)

4) with the passage of time for which it was concluded.

It is worth specifying that the notice period begins to run from the moment the employee or employer makes a declaration of intent. Declaration of each party on the termination or termination of the employment contract without notice should be made in writing. Importantly, the employee has no right to refuse to accept the employer’s statement of termination of the employment contract.

The employee’s possible claims in the event of dismissal are another matter. Pursuant to the Labor Code, the notice period for an employment contract comprising a week or month or a multiple thereof ends on Saturday or the last day of the month, respectively. This means that the notice period in weeks will always end on Saturday.

However, if the employee terminates the employment contract with a weekly period other than Saturday, the employment relationship will end after a longer period, because at least one full week must end from Saturday to Saturday.

On the other hand, if the employment contract is terminated for a month, the contract will end on the last day of the month. However, the month in which the statement was made does not count. By way of example, if the notice period is 1 month, by making a statement on August 1, the contract will terminate on September 30.

KSJ Legal law firm successfully conducts many labor law cases. We advise at every stage of the proceeding, starting from an attempt to resolve the case amicably to obtaining a final decision and execution before law enforcement authorities.

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