The victory of the Law Firm before the Supreme Court (II PK 199/17)

The Law Firm represented a Company in a court dispute which terminated an employment contract with an employee in the disciplinary mode indicating the gross dereliction of duty involving the refusal of the employee to submit to a preventive breathalyser test as the reason.

Taking into account the appeal cassation of the Law Firm, the Supreme Court stated that submitting to preventive breathalyser tests ought to be qualified as basic duties taking into account the kind of the work performed by the employee.

The employee’s failure to fulfil such a duty can constitute a basis for terminating an employment contract in the mode of art. 52 § 1 of the Labour Code. The Supreme Court indicated that the employee was bound with the supervisor’s instruction to submit to such a test, and a refusal to follow such an instruction constitutes a gross dereliction of employees’ duties.

The ruling of the Supreme Court has a significant practical meaning. Until so far, the position according to which an employee cannot be punished by the employer for the sole refusal of submitting to a breathalyser test unless there has been a justified suspicion regarding sobriety has prevailed in judicial practice.

22.11.2018, Katarzyna Nowicka, Małgorzata Mieleszko