In these difficult times for the economy, we are regularly asked the following question: how can we dismiss an employee? More precisely, we are asked how to do it so that, even though there is a good reason behind the termination of the employment contract, the employee will not appeal to the labour court and win a claim for unfair dismissal?<\/p>\n
The Polish Labour Code includes a range of regulations that do not facilitate this uncomfortable task. This, however, does not mean that every dismissal is likely to end up resulting in litigation.<\/p>\n
Our experience shows that in most instances, employees tend to appeal against their employer’s decisions to the labour court because of employer negligence, or simply because it is a shortcut.\u00a0 It is worth considering a few rules that must be observed in order to terminate an employment contract in a fair and reasonable manner.<\/p>\n
Below we present four out of eight rules that in our opinion are key for making an effective dismissal:<\/p>\n
Employers tend to specify a loss of confidence as a general cause for dismissal. Disregarding the fact that this argument does not satisfy the first two rules for the effective termination of an employment contract, a loss of confidence should be considered not as a reason, but as a result of the employee underperforming their duties. Therefore, we recommend stating that the employee breached a, b and c, which resulted in a loss of confidence. But be aware that a loss of confidence is proportional to the position held and the responsibilities at the employer, and that the court will also assess this argument proportionally.<\/p>\n