Less common reasons for giving notice to terminate the employment relationship are termination in connection with a transfer of business, termination in connection with a reorganisation procedure, bankruptcy or death of the employer, and the provision that an employment contract may be deemed cancelled if the employee has been absent from work without giving a valid reason for more than one week.

Right to terminate in connection with a transfer of business

Transfer of business refers to assignment of an enterprise, business, corporate body, foundation or an operative part of these to another employer in cases where the transferred business or part of it, whether full-time or part-time, remains unchanged or similar after the transfer. When the employer transfers the business to a third party, employees on both indefinitely valid and fixed-term employment contracts are entitled to give notice to terminate their contracts as at the date of transfer, provided that they have been notified of the transfer by the employer or the assignee no later than one month before the transfer date. Employees informed later than that are entitled to give notice to terminate their employment contracts as at the date of transfer or later, though no later than one month after being informed of the transfer.

Termination in connection with a reorganisation procedure

The Employment Contracts Act specifies the circumstances in which giving notice to terminate is allowed in connection with a reorganisation procedure. The employer is allowed to give two months' notice to terminate an employee’s employment contract. In cases where the period of notice applied to the employment contract is shorter than two months, the employment contract may be terminated in accordance with this period of notice.

An arrangement or measure to be carried out during the reorganisation procedure which is necessary to avoid bankruptcy and which causes the work to cease or decrease substantially and permanently constitutes acceptable grounds for termination. However, notice to terminate may not be given if the employer can offer the employee other job duties to which the employee, considering his/her professional skills and competence, can be assigned with reasonable retraining.

Bankruptcy and death of the employer

If an enterprise goes bankrupt, this does not automatically terminate its employment relationships. However, under the Employment Contracts Act the bankruptcy estate is entitled to give 14 days' notice to terminate employment contracts. Employees have the same right. This provision also applies to fixed-term employment contracts. The special right to terminate employment based on bankruptcy can only be exercised after the bankruptcy has started.

On the death of the employer, both the parties to the death estate and the employees are entitled to give 14 days' notice to terminate their employment contracts. This provision also applies to fixed-term employment contracts. This right may be exercised within three months of the death of the employer.

Deeming an employment contract cancelled after more than one week absent without leave

The Employment Contracts Act specifies that if either the employer or the employee is absent from the workplace for a set period of time without giving a valid reason, the other party may deem the employment contract cancelled. If the employee has been absent from work for a minimum of seven days without notifying the employer of a valid reason for the absence, the employer is entitled to deem the employment contract cancelled as at the date on which the absence began.

If the employer is absent from the workplace for a minimum of seven days without notifying the employee of a valid reason, the employee shall be entitled to deem the employment contract cancelled.

However, if notifying the other party of a valid reason was impossible because of an acceptable impediment, the cancellation of the employment contract shall be null and void.

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