Employment termination

Key principles

Termination by mutual agreement

• for this hypothesis to be present, the following should exist: 1) the employment legal relationship with the employee should have been terminated with the employee’s firing; 2) the employee has contested the firing and the competent body (the court or the employer) has found the firing to be unlawful and reversed it; 3) the employee has not come to take his former job within two weeks’ time from the notification of her/his reinstatement to work

Termination after expiry of a previously agreed term

Termination upon completion of a specified job

• The moment at which the employee, hired on the basis of fixed-term contract, executes the agreed volume of work with the required quality, is considered the end of the employment relation.

Termination of employment relation upon the return of an employee who was absent

Termination when the position is to be taken by a pregnant woman or an employee with disability

• It is applicable when it concerns a job position, which is taken based on a selection procedure or competition and which until that moment has been held by a person, who has not been employed based on a selection procedure or competition.
• For the termination of the existing employment legal relationship the selection or competition should have been held and the person selected or who has won the competition to be ready to take the job

Termination due to sickness of the employee

This is only possible if all of the conditions listed below are met:

• The employee is unable to carry out the work assigned due to sickness, resulting in permanent disability or increase health risks; and

• The employee’s condition is certified by a labour medical board that that sets out the illness and proves the employee’s inability to perform the current work; and

• The company has no other suitable position that the employee may carry out despite his/ her sickness.
• “Suitable position” means a vacant pay-roll job position, which corresponds to the employee’s changed work ability, which she/he is able and is qualified to perform

• Applicable when the employment legal relationship (ELR) is concluded in view of the employer’s person

• The employment legal relationships are concluded in view of the person of a particular worker / employee and they are not inherited

• Applicable when it concerns job position, which is envisaged to be held by a state servant and which until the moment has been held by a person, who is not a state servant

On these grounds an employment legal relationship may be terminated only in the hypotheses, expressly stipulated in the Labor Code:

• When the employee is unable to perform the work assigned due to sickness and the employer fails to provide another suitable work in accordance with the prescription of the health bodies;
• When the employer is late with the payment of the wage or an indemnification under this Code or under the Public Insurance Code;
• When the employer changes the place or the nature of the work or the agreed upon wage, except in the cases when the latter is entitled to make such changes, as well as when the latter fails to perform other obligations, stipulated in the employment contract or the collective employment contract, or established by virtue of a legal act and/or provision;
• When as a result of restructuring of the enterprise (merger, bundling, change of the ownership of the enterprise, etc.) or as a result of leasing the enterprise or a part thereof the working conditions are significantly worsened under the new employer;
• When the employee transfers to paid elective office or begins scientific work based on a competition held;
• When the employee continues her/his education in an educational institution as a full-time study or works for a doctoral dissertation;
• When the employee works under a fixed-term employment contract for certain term or for replacement of absent employee and transfers to another job for indefinite time;
• When the employee works under an employment contract with an enterprise, which provides temporary work, and enters into a contract with another employer, which is not an enterprise providing temporary work;
• When the employee is reinstated at the job under the respective provisions as a result of declaring the firing unlawful, to take the job for which she/he is reinstated;
• When the employee starts civil service;
• When the employer terminates its business activity;
• When the employer has made the worker / employee take an unpaid leave without the latter’s consent;

• When the employee has obtained the right to pension for social security length of service and age.

The employment relation may be terminated by the employer without notice due to reasons related to the personality and conduct of the employee. The law recognises several options:

• The employee has been detained by the authorities to serve a sentence (serving effective sentences, not other punishments or suspended sentences);

• The employee is stripped of the right to take the position he/she was hired into – the dismissal represents fulfilment of a sentence / penal pronouncement;

• The employee refuses to take a new suitable position – it is only applicable when the decision of a medical board is related to a transfer of the disabled/sick employee to another more suitable position;
• The worker or employee is divested of a scientific degree, if the employment contract has been concluded in view of the acquired degree;
• The employee is erased from the registers of the Law on the Professional Organizations of Physicians and Dentists, from the register of the professional organization of the master – pharmacists under the Master-Pharmacists Professional Organization Act or from the register of the respective professional organization under the Law on the professional organization of the medical nurses, mid-wives and associated medical specialists, dental mechanics and assistant-pharmacists (if for the conclusion of the employment legal relationship the employee is required to have such a registration);
• The worker or employee is fired on disciplinary grounds;
• The worker or employee fails to perform the obligation for notifying the employer if during the implementation of the ELR grounds occur, which are incompatible with the work performed;
• There is incompatibility for performance of work in the state administration by the employee (this concerns only ELR, at which the person is appointed at a job position in the state administration);
• With an entered in effect act a conflict of interests is established under the Law on Counteracting Corruption and on Seizure of Illegally Acquired Property;
• Pedagogical specialist within the meaning of the Law on the Pre-school and School Education is sentenced for publicly prosecuted intentional offence, regardless of the rehabilitation (this concerns only ELR, at which the person is employed as a pedagogical specialist);
• The worker or employee fails to pass the integrity check, provided for in the Law on Counteracting Corruption and on Seizure of Illegally Acquired Property.

Key principles

Termination with notice, initiated by the employee

The employee may terminate the employment contract unilaterally, without having to justify his / her request, by giving the employer a notice, which should: be in writing, addressed to the employer, sets out a specific term upon the expiry of which the employment contract will be terminated. The notice period should be stated in the employment contract. At the permanent employment contracts, such term shall not be less than 30 days and longer than 3 months. The term of the termination notice of a fixed-term employment contract is 3 months, but not more than the remainder of the contract’s term.

Termination with notice, initiated by the employer

The employer may terminate the employment contract unilaterally. As oppose to a notice by the employee, at termination of the employment contract with an advance notice by the employer, the employer shall provide reasoning for the termination. The employer shall be entitled to terminate an employment legal relationship only on the grounds, stipulated in the Labor Code.

The employer’s decision may be justified either with reasons, related to the employee or the employer:

• The law recognised several reasons for termination, related to the employer:

– Closure of the company;

– Closure of part of the company;

– Reducing the number of full-time staff;

– Decrease in the volume of work;

– Suspension of the work for more than 15 days;

– When the position held should be vacated for reinstatement of unlawfully fired employee

– Conclusion of management agreement.

• The law recognised several reasons for termination, related to the employee:

– The employee is lacking the skills and ability to perform the assigned tasks;

– The employee is lacking the required level of education and professional qualifications;

– The employee refuses to move with the company when it moves to a different location (settlement or area);

– Vesting of the right to retirement due to insured length of service and age;

– When the employment legal relationship has occurred after the employee has obtained and exercised the right of pension for social security length of service and age

– Objective reason which makes it impossible for the employee to perform the assigned job (legal obstacle, intolerance to immunisations required to carry out the work);

– Change in the requirements for performing the job (if the employee does not meet the new requirements).

The notice period should be set out in the employee’s employment contract, where for fixed-term contracts it should be minimum 3 months (but not more than remainder of the contract’s term), and for indefinite employment contracts it may be between 30 days and 3 months.

To terminate the employment relation with a protected employee, the employer must obtain a permission in writing by the District Labour Inspectorate, on the territory of which the registered address of the employer is. Such a permission is requested and given or refused for each individual case, i.e. for each employee. The opinion of the medical board and / or trade union must be requested for the termination of certain categories of employees.

Additional information related to the various options for the termination of the employment relation and more specific requirements thereto is available here.