Immediate termination of employment by the employee. When is it possible and how to do it?

Chapters of the article

• When can you give immediate notice?
• How to terminate employment immediately?
• What are your entitlements?
• Summary

When can you give immediate notice?

The Labour Code provides that an employee can immediately terminate his/her employment if the employer has not paid him/her wages or for health reasons. However, immediate notice must be given within 2 months of the date on which the employee became aware of the reason for immediate termination, or at the latest within 1 year of the date on which the reason arose. Let’s take a closer look at both situations:

Non-payment of wages

Immediate termination by the employee is possible if the employer has not paid the employee’s wages or salary or any part thereof within 15 days after the due date. The employer is obliged to pay the employee his wages for his work no later than in the calendar month following the month in which the employee became entitled to the wages or salary or any component thereof. This rule applies even if your employer has not paid only part of your wages (for example, night work allowances).

If you have worked the whole month of July, your employer must pay your wages by 31 August. If he fails to pay you, he is in breach of the employment contract and the law and you are entitled to immediate dismissal. However, you still have to wait 15 days after the due date to give notice. So in our example, you could not give immediate notice until 15 September.

In addition, there are also ways to get the wages owed. You can send a written notice to your employer with information about the amount owed and the period of time it was incurred. If that doesn’t work, you also have the option of filing a lawsuit, reporting it to the labor inspectorate, and applying to the labor office to satisfy the wage claim.

Health reasons

The law provides that an employee may give immediate notice of termination if, according to a medical opinion issued by an occupational health service provider or a decision of the competent administrative authority reviewing the medical opinion, he or she can no longer perform the work without serious risk to his or her health and the employer has not made it possible for him or her to perform other work suitable for him or her within 15 days from the date of submission of the medical opinion.

As the law implies, your employer should find you other suitable work if you are unfit. An example of this would be if the employee works in a manufacturing plant as a mechanic. However, due to a health problem with his spine, he loses his medical capacity to do physically demanding work. His employer therefore reassigns him to an administrative position in a warehouse where he can perform work that he is medically able to do.

An important piece of information is that you are obliged to accept the reassignment in this case. Of course, you can give notice, but only a traditional notice (not immediate) and without severance pay.

Of course, it may also happen that your employer does not have another job for you, and this is the situation where you have the option of giving immediate notice. In addition, you are also entitled to a wage replacement equivalent to your average earnings once the medical report has been submitted. You are entitled to this until your employer reassigns you to another job or until your employment is terminated.

How to terminate employment immediately?

Immediate termination must be in writing. If you give it verbally, it is invalid. It is also a good idea to have it sent by registered post so that you have proof that your employer actually received it. It starts to take effect as soon as it is delivered to your employer. At the same time, your notice should contain certain information:

• Employee identification: your name, date of birth, place of residence, etc. If you have an identification number assigned by the company, then include that as well.
• Identification of the employer.
• Formulate the reason for termination: you are legally obliged to state the reason for termination. This means that you must give sufficient information about the reason why you have decided to terminate your employment. If you are terminating your employment because of a medical condition, you should describe the nature of the medical condition. Similarly, you must state the reason for the non-payment of wages by the employer with other information (e.g. the amount not paid, the date, etc.) It is important in this case that the wording is clear and specific so that it cannot be confused with other reasons or interpreted ambiguously.
• Date, place, signature: At the end of the statement, the place and date of the statement and your signature should be indicated.

Immediate notice – model

What are your demands?

If you give immediate notice, you are entitled to wage compensation equal to your average earnings for the period of notice. The standard notice period is two months, but if you have a longer notice period agreed in your contract, then this period applies.

Summary

An employee has the right to immediate notice if the employer fails to pay wages on time or if health reasons make it impossible to continue working. In the event of non-payment of wages, the employer must be given 15 days to resolve the situation after the due date. Termination for health reasons may be given on the basis of a medical report if the employer does not offer suitable alternative work within 15 days. Immediate notice must be in writing and must state the specific reason for giving it.