3.3 Rights and obligations of employees and employers

The employer is obliged to :

assign work to the employee according to the employment contract ,

to pay him/her wages for the performance of work ,

to create conditions for the performance of work tasks

to maintain other work conditions stipulated by the legal regulations, the collective agreement and the employment contract

The employee is obliged according to the employer’s instructions :

to perform work in person according to the employment contract

in a determined working time, and

to maintain the work discipline

Severance pay and retirement benefit

In the Labour Code the obligation or possibility of the employer to provide the employee with the severance pay is stated, namely on the dependency from the manner of the employment relationship termination (by agreement or notice given by the employer). The severance pay is s single creature comforts of the relieved employee whom the employer provides according to the employment relationship termination by giving notice out of the organizational and health reasons. In the following cases the employer may provide the severance pay, the Labour Code does not levy this obligation. The employer is obliged to pay the severance pay when the employee agrees with his/her employment relationship termination suggestion even before the beginning of the expiry of the notice period. The amount of the severance pay is in this case at least twice as much as his average monthly earnings (three times as much for the employee who has worked for the employer for at least five years).

The employer is always entitled to the severance pay when the paying conditions and the amount were agreed upon in the collective agreement, the working contract or in the agreement of the employment relationship termination. The retirement benefit is provided upon the first termination (with the same employer) of the employment relationship upon acquiring the entitlement to an old-age pension, an invalidity pension, or a pension for years of service. The amount of the retirement benefit is at least the amount of his/her average monthly earnings.

Prohibition of notice

The prohibition of notice applies to the life situations when the employee is within the socalled protected period and the employer cannot give notice to him. The employer cannot give notice to the employee within the protected period, i.e.

within the period when the employee is acknowledged temporarily incapable of working due to disease or accident unless deliberately induced or caused under the influence of alcohol, narcotic substances or psychotropic substances,

in cases of drafting for service in the armed forces, from the day on when the employee was drafted for performance of national service by the delivery of conscription notice, in cases of civilian service,

within the period of the employee's pregnancy, or when the employee is on a maternity leave or on a parental leave,

within the period when the employee is fully released of the execution of a public function,

within the period when the employee working at night is on grounds of medical opinion acknowledged as being temporarily incapable to perform the night work. In case of protection period, the existence of given matter is important and not the employer’s knowledge of this matter.

The prohibition of notice shall not apply to notice given to the employee :

if the employer or a part thereof is wound-up or relocated ,

for a reason justifying the employer to immediately terminate the employment relationship unless concerning the employee on a maternity leave and the employee on a parental leave

for other breach of the labour discipline unless concerning a pregnant employee, or the employee on a maternity leave or the employee on a parental leave,

if it is his/her fault that he/she has lost the preconditions for the performance of the agreed work

Immediate termination of the employment relationship

JIt is a special way of the employment relationship termination. The employer may terminate the employment relationship with an immediate effect in cases where the employee :

was lawfully sentenced for committing a wilful offence ,

was in serious breach of the labour discipline

The Labour Code does not define the term “a serious breach of the labour discipline”. Hence it is necessary to judge the particular cases individually. An example may be e.g. a long-term unexcused absence or if the employee is under the influence of alcohol during the work time.

The employee may immediately terminate the employment relationship :

because of health problems - if the employer has not transferred him/her to other work place within 15 days after the submission of the medical opinion ,

when the employer failed to pay him/her the wages or the wages compensation within 15 days after the due date of payment ,

when his/her life or health is directly threatened,

an adolescent employee may also immediately terminate the employment relationship if he/she is incapable of performing the work without jeopardising his/her morals

The employee may immediately terminate the employment relationship only within a month after he/she became acquainted with the reason for an immediate termination of the employment relationship. The immediate termination of the employment relationship is not possible if more than one year since the occurrence of these matters has elapsed. The employee who immediately terminated the employment relationship shall be entitled to the wages compensation at the height of his/her average monthly earnings for a two-month notice period. The immediate termination of the employment relationship must fulfil the terms of the Labour Code, it is deemed invalid otherwise. I.e. the employer and the employee must make the immediate termination of the employment relationship in a written form, wherein they must define the reason accurately so that no confusion with other reasons shall be possible.