#HRNOTES 37

The police are already investigating the employee. Must the employer act immediately?

An educator at a children’s home secretly placed a recording device in his colleague’s office. The police began investigating the case – and it was only in the course of their investigation that the employer learned who was behind the conduct.

The employer did not terminate the employment relationship immediately. It waited for the outcome of the police investigation and subsequently terminated the educator’s employment relationship with immediate effect.

But was it already too late?

This question was addressed by the Supreme Court in proceedings No. 21 Cdo 946/2025.

The Labour Code sets a time limit within which an employer may give an employee notice of termination or terminate the employment relationship with immediate effect due to a breach of work-related duties. However, if the employee’s conduct is, during that period, under investigation by another authority, such as the police, the employer may terminate the employment relationship within a further period calculated from the time when it learns of the outcome of that investigation.

In the case at hand, however, the sequence of events raised an issue. The police had begun investigating the employee’s conduct before the employer became aware of the reason for terminating the employment relationship. A literal reading of Section 58(2) of the Labour Code could therefore suggest that the extension of the time limit did not apply.

The Supreme Court rejected such an interpretation. What matters is whether the investigation is actually ongoing during the relevant time limit – not when it commenced.

The employer learned of the outcome of the police investigation on 20 February 2023 and terminated the employment relationship with immediate effect the following day. According to the Supreme Court, the employer therefore acted in time.

An employer may therefore wait for the outcome of a police investigation even if the police began dealing with the matter before the employer itself became aware of the issue.