How to challenge a dismissal from work before Czech courts

What to claim from an employer?

If an employer unlawfully terminated an employment relationship, the employee may, in the first instance, request that the employer continue to employ him or her. In addition, the employee may also demand that the employer provides him or her with wage compensation from the date of termination of the former employment to the day the employee starts a new one. For example, if an employee with an average earnings of 20,000 CZK per month cannot work for a year as a result of unlawful dismissal, he or she would be entitled to wage compensation of approximately 240,000 CZK, even if the employment contract contained a provision that would exclude or limit such a claim.

An employee is empowered to make such claims if the employer terminates the employment relationship without legal basis for doing so; the unlawfulness of employment termination may be caused even by a minor mistake in the notice.

We have already dealt with a case where the employer misrepresented the reason for dismissal and even witnesses in court did not prove the alleged misconduct of the employee. Although the employer’s defeat was inevitable, he still prolonged the trial and lodged an appeal. Eventually, the amount of severance payment grew to dizzying heights in the order of hundreds of thousands of crowns.

There is no “notice by agreement”

In principle, however, an employee will not be able to object to an unlawful termination of an employment relationship if the employment relationship is terminated by agreement, that is to say, if the employer has concluded an agreement to terminate the employment relationship with the employee. This is sometimes referred to as ‘notice by agreement’. It is assumed that an agreement to terminate an employment relationship was concluded at the discretion of both parties, and therefore the possibility of subsequent challenge is considerably limited. However, in the event of an invalid termination of the employment agreement, the employee would still be entitled to wage compensation.

What steps must be taken?

The Labour Code determines should an employee proceed if he or she does not agree with the termination of employment. The procedure is the same whether it concerns termination of employment in probation period, notice of termination or immediate termination of employment.

First, the employee must notify the employer without undue delay that he or she insists on continuation of the employment. “Without undue delay” usually a couple of days to a maximum of several weeks. In such a case, the employment continues. If the employee does not send such notice to the employer or does not deliver it in person, the employment relationship is terminated at the end of the notice period. Therefore, even if termination is unlawful, it is always up to the employee to claim his or her rights. Otherwise, they will be deemed to have agreed to the notice and termination of their employment.

If, despite the announcement, the employer continues to insist that the dismissal is justified and that the employee will not be allowed to take up employment, the employee will be required to sue the employer in court.

The court shall assess the validity and legitimacy of the dismissal. However, the time limit for bringing an action is only two months from the date on which the employment relationship was to end, i.e. from the date of the expiry of the notice period. It is not advisable to wait with bringing forward a legal action, because it is not possible to waive the deadline.

What about a notice served by the employee?

For the sake of completeness, we add that similar claims can also be claimed by the employer if the employee gives an invalid notice. Not only will the employer be able to demand that the employee continues to carry out his or her work, but the employer will also be able to claim damages from the employee. Therefore, we do not recommend using just any downloaded pattern from the Internet when giving notice. Such a standardized notice does not have to meet all legal requirements and may therefore be invalid.

If you are going to serve a notice at your job and need advice on how to avoid unnecessary mistakes, the lawyers at Dostupný advokát will be happy to assist you in such a situation.