The science of labor law distinguishes between limitation of claims and limitation, i.e. tight deadlines. The limitation period has been expressed in Art. 291 § LC According to the wording of that provision, the limitation period is three years and runs from the date on which the claim became due. However, from this rule, the provisions of Art. 291 § 2, §2 (1), §3 and § 5 of the Labor Code introduces exceptions. According to Art. 291 § 2 of the Labor Code Employer’s claims for compensation for damage caused by an employee as a result of non-performance or improper performance of employee duties shall be statute-barred after 1 year from the date on which the employer learned about the damage caused by the employee, but no later than 3 years after the damage was caused. This provision also applies to the claim referred to in Art. 61 (1) LC (unjustified termination of employment without notice by the employee) and 101 (1) (non-competition clause). If the employee caused the damage intentionally, the provisions of the Civil Code (Article 291 §3 of the Code of Civil Procedure), i.e. Art. 442 § 1 and 2 of this Code. On the other hand, a deadline is one whose expiry causes a definitive loss of the legal possibility to perform an action necessary to cause specific material and legal effects. The expiry of the mandatory deadline is always taken into account ex officio. The strict deadlines, the expiry of which deprives the employee of the possibility of pursuing claims before the labor court, are:
- the deadline of 14 days from the notification of rejection of the objection to the application to the labor court to revoke the ordinal penalty (Article 112 § 2 of the Labor Code),
- 30 days from the date of concluding a settlement infringing the employee’s legitimate interest to apply to the labor court for declaring it ineffective (Art. 256 of the Labor Code)