articles - Labour and employment law

It is always advisable to comprehensively assess the risks before going ahead with terminating an employment contract. A reason which, at first glance, seems sufficient for dismissing an employee will not always be justified from a legal perspective. Generally, the law requires a specific reason for terminating an employment contract: its absence, or incorrect wording, opens the way for the employee to pursue claims in court.

There is no shortage of disputes concerning dismissals. The Ministry of Justice’s statistics show that they constitute the second largest category, by number, of all cases brought by employees. In the first half of 2025, 8,927 cases were recorded concerning the validity of termination notices and 5,864 cases involving disciplinary dismissals. In the whole of 2024, there were 10,599 and 7,152 such cases respectively, whereas 9,133 and 6,627 in 2023.

According to established case law, the reason for termination must be genuine, specific, comprehensible, current and valid (see Supreme Court resolution of 27 June 1985, III PZP 10/85).

In practice, it may happen that an employee, who is within a period of notice, seriously breaches basic duties, giving the employer grounds to terminate the employment contract without notice (a disciplinary dismissal). In such case, the employer will not have to wait for the period of notice to expire: the employer will be able to terminate the contract immediately due to a fault of the employee, without having to withdraw the earlier notice of termination.

Nevertheless, such a decision carries significant legal consequences as the employee may appeal against both the notice of termination and the disciplinary dismissal. Furthermore, the only provision of the Labour Code that explicitly governs the effects of an immediate termination of employment due to a fault of the employee within a period of notice is Article 60 of LC, and it does not cover all possible situations. Below, we discuss common scenarios and their practical implications for employers.

The shorter a regulation, the more questions and doubts it raises. And so it is in the case of Article 101(2) § 3 of the Labour Code, which regulates the minimum amount of compensation for a non-compete clause (or restrictive covenant) after employment termination. Compensation may not be lower than 25% of the remuneration the employee received before employment termination, for the duration of the competition ban. How this is interpreted is important.   

Employee sickness and absenteeism from work are inherent business risks which the employer has to take into account. An employee's absence from work can be so frequent that it significantly affects the functioning of the workplace. In such situations, it may be in the employer’s interest to terminate such an employee’s employment contract and hire someone else to take their place. Labour Code provisions oblige employers to specify the reason justifying such a decision in the notice terminating indefinite-term contracts (Article 30 § 4 of the Labour Code). Does regular sickness absenteeism...

Employment contract termination is one of the most important legal actions in relation to an employer – employee, as it terminates the legal relationship binding them. An employer must diligently prepare for termination of an employment contract. Any error on his part may result in the need to pay compensation to an employee or even to reinstate the employee at work on previous terms.  

Employees expecting to receive termination notice often take sick leave to protect themselves from dismissal (or at least to postpone it). During the coronavirus pandemic, the risk of losing a job is increasing, whilst digitally obtaining a medical certificate is easier than ever. When dismissals have to take place in unusual circumstances, e.g. during a period of remote work, it is important to be familiar with the rules concerning termination of employment in the event of an employee's illness. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the illness itself that guarantees protection against...