Dismissal

Put in terms of employment law, a dismissal is when an employer chooses to terminate an employee’s tenure. This can be done either through a sack or termination. A termination is when both parties agree on ending the employment agreement. A sack is, directly put, when an employee is fired. A dismissal by sacking therefore follows the procedure specified in the employment contract.

A dismissal always has to be reasonably justified. If a sack is overruled, it expires. In this case, the dismissed employee will often receive a compensation. As an employer, there are a number of conditions one has to pay attention to in order to sack an employee. You will read more on these below.

Discrimination

When planning to dismiss an employee, there are several aspects to pay attention to. First and foremost, it is illegal to do so on the grounds of gender, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, background or political views. This is described in equality laws, among others.

Apart from this, a dismissal can be undertaken based on the respective employment - for instance, if one does not want to fulfill an agreement. Hence, it is not allowed to discriminate against an employee.

Reasons for dismissal

If you do not pay attention to the rules for a dismissal, it can become very expensive. It is possible to end up having to pay an entire year’s salary as compensation.

As stated before, you have to provide a factual and reasonable justification for sacking an employee. Cutbacks, restructuring and common savings are always valid reasons. The company does not need to be about to go bankrupt to use this reasoning.

On the other hand, dismissing an employee because of pregnancy, parental leave, age and other discriminatory reasons mentioned above, is not admissible. If you want to fire an employee due to objective reasons while they are on parental leave, the employer has to prove that the reason is not parental leave.

If you are of the opinion that the employee is not sufficiently fit - whether in terms of qualification or not performing adequately, they have to be given the chance to improve. In this case, a written notice is handed out first. If an employee has breached the contract or acted in a very disloyal way, there may very well be situations when an immediate sack is feasible.  Sick leave can not be used as a reason for dismissal either.

Dismissal of functionaries

Laws on salaried employees describe several legally guaranteed rights for functionaries. This includes some specific rules for dismissal.

-         After 0-6 months of employment the employer has to communicate the dismissal a month in advance.

-         After 6 months and up until 3 years of employment there is a notice period of 3 months.

-         After 3-6 years of employment the notice period is 4 months.

-         After 6-9 years of employment the notice period is 5 months.

-         After 9 and more years of employment the notice period is 6 months.

A functionary has to receive their dismissal in writing, while for others there are no formal requirements. Furthermore, a functionary has to be provided a reason.