Kocian Solc Balastik has obtained a successful result for the Preol biofuel company in invalid immediate employment termination case before the Czech Supreme Court.
Preol was sued by a employee claiming that the immediate termination of his employment by the company — which KSB reports, followed "an especially gross breach of his obligations after the employee attempted to take company assets without permission" — was invalid. In his defense, the employee claimed that, although he did not have permission, he believed the assets were of no value to the employer since they were production waste, which – in certain circumstances – the company allows employees to have for their own needs.
Although the first-instance court dismissed the lawsuit, the employee appealed the decision and the Regional Court in Usti nad Labem (acting as the appellate court) decided in favor of the employee. At that point, Preol asked KSB to take over and represent it in the special remedy proceedings.
The case ended up before the Czech Supreme Court, which decided the case in favour of KSB’s client. The Court held that mutual trust and an employee’s reliability and honesty are of essential importance in an employer-employee relationship, which is why it considers a deliberate attack against the employer’s assets to be an especially gross breach of the employee’s obligations. The fact that the employer allows employees to take production waste subject to certain requirements (which the employee failed to meet), does not change anything in that respect.
The KSB team was led by Partner Pavel Dejl.
