Labour law: GWW’s success before the Supreme Court

COMMENTARY – Attorney at law (admitted as radca prawny) Katarzyna Blachowicz, who heads the labour law practice at GWW:

This is a precedent-setting ruling which is very good news for employers, which have so far been regarded as the stronger party in a relationship and have in effect often been treated more severely. The Supreme Court held that extending the termination notice period does not have an influence on the amount of compensation which an employee can demand in the event of an unlawful and unjustified termination of an employment contract, even if the employment contract introduces a longer termination notice period than the maximum stated in the Labour Code.

In practice this means that merely reserving a termination notice period longer than the statutory one is insufficient for compensation to be obtained in an amount corresponding to the remuneration for the entire termination notice period. An employee will not receive compensation in an amount higher than the remuneration for a three-month termination notice period unless the contract pointedly states that, in the event of its defective dissolution, the employee can claim compensation equal to the remuneration for the extended termination notice period. If, therefore, the parties to an employment contract want to increase the compensation, this must be clearly stated in the contract.

BACKGROUND:
The Supreme Court considered the case of a CFO who had a guaranteed six-month termination notice period in his employment contract (it was to end at the end of a quarter). The company terminated his agreement during restructuring, and he took the matter to court. The four-year dispute ended positively for GWW’s client – the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the second-instance court and held that the employee was entitled to compensation for a maximum of three, and not six, salaries, because the parties had not written a higher compensation amount into the employment contract, but merely a longer termination notice period. The compensation provided for in the Labour Code is therefore applicable.