- Date:
- 16 Jun 2014
- By:
- Sabine Buhl Valentiner
An employer was entitled to dismiss an employee with the reduced notice available under the 120-sick day rule although the employee was not given notice until he had been off sick for 129.5 days
An employer was entitled to dismiss an employee with the reduced notice available under the 120-sick day rule although the employee was not given notice until he had been off sick for 129.5 days.
Under the Danish Salaried Employees Act, an employer is allowed to dismiss a salaried employee with a reduced notice after 120 sick days, subject to the express requirement that notice must be given
"in immediate connection" with the expiry of the 120 sick days. This requirement may cause some practical problems – for instance, should half sick-days be included in this calculation or not? And what does "in immediate connection" mean exactly? This was the questions to be considered by the Danish Eastern High Court in a recent case.
An employee, who was covered by the 120-sick day rule and had been off sick for a number of periods, was given a reduced notice of 1 month after 129.5 sick days. But the employee argued that he had not been dismissed in immediate connection with the expiry of the 120 sick days, and the case ended up in the High Court.
The Court ruled in favour of the employer, holding that it would give rise to concern if the employee was not regarded as having been given notice in immediate connection with the 120 sick days.
Norrbom Vinding notes
- that the judgment affirms existing case law, according to which the requirement of immediate connection is deemed to be fulfilled if the employee is given notice after being absent for 129.5 sick days; and
- that the courts seem reluctant to deem the requirement to be fulfilled if the employee is given notice on or after the 130th sick day.
