Case Law: A Trade Union Established Solely For Its New Officials To Be Protected From Being Terminated

• Law Firm: L&E Global
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Contract of Employment, Employee Benefits & Compensation, Employment Litigation/ Tribunals
• Author: Kl'ra Sleglova (Havel & Partners) and Jan Koval (Havel & Partners)
• Published date: 01 August 2023

The Czech Supreme Court has addressed the issue of the establishment of a trade union with the sole objective of protecting its founders from termination of their employment by the trade union's deliberate denial of consent to the employer's proposed termination of employment of the founders.

(File number: 21 Cdo 474/2021-713)

In this case, the employee was a member of a trade union body and was served with a notice of termination on the grounds of redundancy [pursuant to Section 52(c) of the Czech Labour Code] despite the trade union refusing to grant consent to the employer, which is necessary when terminating employment with a member of the trade union body. The employee sought a court determination of the invalidity of the termination.

Under current legal regulations, a court can deem a termination valid even without trade union consent, provided that all other conditions for termination (or immediate termination) are met. However, this decision can only be rendered if it would be unjust to require the employer to continue employing the person, typically due to the employer's economic situation.

It further emerged from the circumstances of the case that the founders of the trade union organization were not genuinely interested in advocating for the rights of all employees in the company, as they ignored requests from some employees to join the union. Additionally, some of the founders were aware that they faced personnel consequences due to deficiencies in their work performance.

The Supreme Court...