AKMV Termination of a fixed-term employment contract
QUESTION
Hello, I was hired for a position as a replacement, specifically covering maternity/parental leave. Now, after 6 months, they want to give me a termination notice, but the woman hasn’t even given birth yet and is not returning to work at all. So, the employment contract was fixed-term for the duration of the replacement. I don’t know how to ask this, but can they give me a termination now, whatever the reason they find?
Thank you in advance.
Zuzana
ANSWER:
According to the Labor Code, an employer may give an employee notice of termination only for reasons established in the Labor Code.
The employer may give notice under § 63 para. 1 and following if:
the employer or part of it is dissolved or relocated and the employee does not agree with the change of the agreed place of work performance,
the employee becomes redundant due to a written decision by the employer or relevant authority regarding changes in tasks, technical equipment, staff reduction to ensure work efficiency, or other organizational changes; in the case of temporary employment agencies, also if the employee becomes redundant due to the end of a temporary assignment under § 58 before the fixed-term contract expires,
the employee has long-term lost the ability to perform their current work due to health reasons as per a medical assessment, or may not perform the work due to occupational disease or risk thereof, or has reached the maximum allowed exposure at the workplace set by public health authorities,
the employee (i) does not meet the legal requirements to perform the agreed work, (ii) ceased to meet requirements under § 42 para. 2 (election/appointment), (iii) does not meet, without employer’s fault, the requirements for proper performance of the agreed work set by internal regulations, or (iv) unsatisfactorily performs work duties and the employer has in the last six months given written warning to remedy the deficiencies, which the employee did not fix within a reasonable time,
there are reasons allowing immediate termination due to serious reasons or less serious breaches of work discipline; for less serious breaches, notice may be given if the employee was warned in writing about the possibility of termination in the last six months.
According to § 61 para. 2 of the Labor Code: “The reason for termination must be factually specified in the notice so that it cannot be confused with another reason; otherwise, the notice is invalid. The reason cannot be changed afterwards.”
Therefore, before the fixed term of your contract expires, the employer can only terminate the contract for the reasons listed above, and the reason must be clearly stated in the termination notice.
JUDr. Veronika Michalíková, MBA