Private: Conditional dissolution remains possible

An employer who has summarily dismissed an employee may request the subdistrict court to conditionally dissolve the employment contract (in case it still exists and the dismissal does not stand). However, this is only possible if the relevant subdistrict court judge himself judges that the summary dismissal was not legally valid. This is what the Supreme Court has ruled.

After the introduction of the Work and Security Act, it was no longer clear whether conditional dissolution of an employment contract was still possible. Judges ruled differently on this in recent months. The Supreme Court has now provided clarity.

A conditional dissolution of an employment contract protects the employer against the possibility that, possibly after years of litigation, it would be established that the dismissal was not legally valid. According to the Supreme Court, however, the subdistrict court cannot dissolve the employment contract with a view to a possible appeal in which the court of appeal, unlike the subdistrict court, would not consider the summary dismissal to be legally valid.

The Supreme Court further ruled that the proceedings on the validity of the dismissal and the dissolution proceedings should, as far as possible, be conducted simultaneously and in conjunction with each other, and that in the dissolution proceedings, in principle, the statutory rules of evidence apply.