Remote Work: Dealing With Suspensions

• Published date: 08 September 2022
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Contract of Employment
• Law Firm: lus Laboris
• Author: Ms Patricija Julija Nedveckytė (COBALT)

With the huge expansion in employees working remotely in recent years, new disciplinary issues have emerged. How can an employer in Lithuania ensure the suspension of a remote working employee is valid and legal?

Recent amendments to the Lithuanian Labour Code (LC) have considerably broadened the range of employees whose requests for teleworking must be granted. As teleworking becomes a daily routine for employers and employees, inevitably, new issues arise. A highly topical issue is the recording of disciplinary violations and the suspension of employees. Suspension is relatively straightforward when the employee is working in the office, but when working remotely, it presents a number of challenges.

Suspending an employee

What does suspension mean? Suspension is the temporary suspension of an employment contract, when an employee is prevented from performing his or her agreed job functions.

An employee is normally suspended for the following reasons:

• at the written request of officials or official bodies;
• while investigating the circumstances of possible misconduct;

• when an employee shows up for work under the influence of alcohol or narcotic, psychotropic or toxic substances.

The last ground is probably the most difficult to apply.

How can you assess an employee's condition remotely?

The fundamental problem with the last ground for suspension is determining whether an employee is intoxicated. The usual signs of drunkenness, such as inappropriate behaviour and slurred speech, are particularly difficult to spot when working remotely. And the identification of some signs, for example, the odour of alcohol on an employee's breath, is impossible.

To suspend the employee on this ground, the employer or other staff members must clearly observe uncoordinated or inappropriate behaviour or other signs indicating that the person is intoxicated. Only then can the employer take other steps to determine whether the employee is actually under the influence.

It is therefore recommended that employers set up an internal procedure for organising a drunkenness check for remote working employees.

Employers can stipulate that in the event of a suspicion of drunkenness, the employer has the right to arrive at the employee's designated teleworking location for a check, or that the employee must present himself/herself at the workplace or a healthcare institution for a check.

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