Outplacement

Outplacement is connected with duties of an employer towards his employees who lose their jobs within the group lay-offs procedure. General forms of aid programs and a definition of an outplacement are stipulated in an act from 20 April 2004 on policy of employment activation and on institutions of labor market (Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland (Dz. U.) from 2004, No. 99, pos. 1001 with further amendments). According to the act, outplacement is a termination of an employment relationship due to reasons concerning a work place. In connection with that termination, services of labor market are provided for employees put on notice or being at risk of such a perspective.

A condition for qualifying a group lay-offs process as outplacement is an intent of an  employer to dismiss at least 50 employees within three months (art. 70 point 1 of the act on policy of employment activation), despite the total number of the employed in a given enterprise. In that case, an employer is obliged to arrange with a relevant county labor office a scope and forms of aid for the employees being during dismissal procedure. In accordance with the act, such an aid is to concern services of labor market (art.70 point 2) that comprise in particular employment agency, career counseling, trainings and aid in active search for a job (art.35). In case of lay-offs below the number of 50 employees, an employer may draw up an aid program but does not have to do this.

There is no universal model of carrying out an outplacement process. Many depends on specificity of a given business sector where outplacement is to take place as well as on needs of its employees. Aid programs for employees of lower professional ranks are different from those for management staff. Most commonly, employees can count on psychologist’s assistance, trainings, in-service courses, retraining, or those trainings where one can learn how to write an application for a job, a motivational letter or can get to know how to act during an interview. Programs within outplacement issue involve also very often monitoring of a local labor market in search for possibilities of employment for dismissed employees. In case when there are redundancies of specialists of different areas or managers, it is not an exception to prepare some individual aid services for them.

Programs with services of the labor market for dismissed employees may be financed from different financial resources, including (art. 70 point 4 of the act on policy of employment activation):

1) an employer,

2) employer and relevant public administration units (i.e. labor office),

3) on the basis of an agreement between organizations and legal persons with participation of an employer.

Basic services of the labor market are provided by provincial and county labor offices without charge, and all unemployed and searching for a job as well as employers are entitled to free of charge use of this services. Moreover, an employer may get a refund of a pension fund contributions paid by him, on condition that a training for the employees was paid for from his firm’s training fund (in addition, an employer is not obliged to set up such a fund). Employees comprised within a specific outplacement process have also right to, guaranteed by the parliamentary act, support of a relevant county labor office within the scope of career counseling and they may be referred to on-time trainings organized and financed by that office.

Implementation of aid programs within the issue of outplacement may be a kind of additional financial burden for entrepreneurs, especially when they make use of services of professional firms of career counseling which offer multifaceted activities within an outplacement procedure. It should be remember though that the better specialized an aid program is, the more efficient procedure of group lay-offs is going to be, and the lesser risk of court disputes will have to be considered.

Outplacement helps in creating positive relations with the employees under redundancy. It also have a considerable impact on an employer’s image, when he does not leave his previous employees without a helping hand. During restructuring, it is especially important to ensure relative stability in a company’s business activity, and agreement with the employees upon the aid programs makes it possible to avoid court disputes or strikes. It also brings a positive influence on an atmosphere within the firm despite the fact of the uncertainty of the employment. In enterprise where there is an authentic interest in helping the employees made redundant, number of court cases for infringement on employees’ rights or for unlawful dismissal within the group lay-offs procedure is definitely lower.

Protection Of The Employee’s Personal Rights

Pursuant to the wording of the article 11¹ of the Labour Code an employer is obligated to respect dignity and other personal rights of an employee. The aforementioned provision constitutes one of the basic principles of the labour law and at the same time it constitutes one of the basic duties of employer towards an employee. The aforementioned provision does not indicate precisely what kind of personal rights are protected and among them mentions only a dignity. However an exemplary specification of the personal rights is included in the article 24 § of the Civil Code, which indicates inter alia following personal rights: health, freedom, honour, freedom of conscience, name and pseudonym, image, secrecy of correspondence. The aforementioned provision finds its application in the labour law on the grounds of the article 300 of the Labour Code, pursuant to which, in the events not specified by the labour law provisions to the labour relationship are accordingly applied provisions of the Civil Code unless they are contrary to labour law principles.

It is worth mentioning that the provisions of the Civil Code shall also have an application in the case of violating by an employer of some of employee’s personal rights. Pursuant with the provision of the article 24 § 1 of the Civil Code, a person whose personal rights were threatened by someone else’s behaviour, may request giving up of such an omission, unless it is unlawful. In the event of breach he may also claim, that a person who had committed such a breach, make a statement with an appropriate content and form. Moreover, on the basis provided in the Civil Code he may also demand a financial compensation or payment of an appropriate amount for a social objective. The basis of protection of specified employee’s personal rights may also constitute provisions of the Act on Copyrights and Neighbouring Rights or Industrial Property Act.

Also the Labour Code provides a number of legal remedies to which an employee is entitled in the event of breaching his personal rights by an employer. One of such a remedies, which is of profound practical importance, is the article 55¹ § 1 of the Labour Code, pursuant to which in the event of a gross breach by an employer of substantial employer’s duties (and thus a duty of respecting of employees’ personal rights) an employee may terminate a contract without notice.

It should be also remembered that a legal remedy to which an employee is entitled shall be dependent on the character of the infringed personal right. For example when an employer sullies the good name of an employee by providing false information, an employee may be entitled to claim an employer to make an appropriate statement (article 24 § of the Civil Code). However when it comes to an infringement of an employee’s personal copyrights, an employee shall be entitled to make use of claims provided in the Act Copyrights and Neighbouring Rights.