The Supreme Court in its judgment of 2 June 2017 (file no. III PK 114/16) indicated that in the statement on the termination of an employment contract concluded for an indefinite period due to the liquidation of one of the analogous positions, the employer should indicate the reason for selecting the employee for dismissal. This obligation results from Art. 30 § 4 of the Labor Code. It is not necessary to indicate the reason only if the reason for the dismissal of that particular employee is obvious or known to the employee. It is important that in the statement on termination of the employment contract, the employer indicates the adopted criteria for selecting an employee to be dismissed and describes the procedure for applying these criteria.
Specifying the criteria for selecting an employee to be dismissed is the basis for an attempt to challenge the validity of the dismissal made by the employer. This is a supplement to the generally defined reason for termination of the employment relationship in the form of organizational changes leading to the liquidation of the job, which allows the employee to understand why he was given a declaration of will to this effect (judgment of the Supreme Court of April 16, 2019, ref. I PK 25/18).
In the judgment of 5 March 2019 (reference number I BP 10/17), the Supreme Court recalled that the criteria for selecting employees for dismissal are not cataloged in any generally applicable labor law provision. A court hearing an employee’s appeal against a dismissal made as part of a reduction in employment may not restrict the employer’s personnel policy and impose its own set of these criteria on the employer.
However, the selection of people with whom the employment relationship is to be terminated as part of individual or group layoffs cannot be arbitrary and arbitrary. The legal framework for the employer’s decision is provided in Art. 94 point 9 and article. 113 and art. 183a of the Labor Code, ordering the employer to apply objective and fair criteria for assessing employees and the results of their work also when selecting people qualified for dismissal. Therefore, the most important criteria for selection for dismissal should be: the employee’s suitability for work, his qualifications and professional skills, professional experience, seniority and work history as well as availability to the employer.
KS