Can a manager be removed from office without notice, or must we serve notice of termination?

The sales director is missing targets and the board wants someone else in the post. It does not, however, want to dismiss them: they know the clients and the product, and the company would gladly use them elsewhere. Whether this can be done by unilateral decision depends on the country in which the employment runs and on what you agreed with the manager on joining. Czech and Slovak law diverge fundamentally on this question.

Czechia: removability must be agreed in advance

The Czech Labour Code (Act No. 262/2006 Sb.) recognises removal from a senior post at private employers, but only where this has been agreed. Under Section 73(2) of the Czech Labour Code, the possibility of removal from a senior post may be agreed with a senior employee provided it is also agreed that the senior employee may resign from it.

The agreement has two conditions. It must be reciprocal: the company gains the power to remove, the manager the power to resign from the post. And it applies only to posts within the direct managerial remit of the statutory body and to posts one level below, where the holder has another senior employee reporting to them (Section 73(3) of the Czech statute). It cannot validly be agreed with a team leader at the third level of management.

Only the statutory body may remove the manager (Section 73(4)). The removal must be in writing and the office ends on the day it is delivered, unless a later day is stated in it (Section 73a(1)). The employment does not end by it. The employer is obliged to offer the manager other work corresponding to their state of health and qualifications. If it has none, or the manager refuses it, this constitutes an obstacle to work on the employer’s side and, at the same time, grounds for notice on the basis of redundancy under Section 52(c) of the Czech Labour Code. Severance pay on organisational grounds is, however, due under Section 73a(2) only where the employment is terminated after removal in connection with the abolition of the post in an organisational change.

Slovakia: a change of position only by agreement or notice

The Slovak Labour Code (Act No. 311/2001 Coll.) does not recognise general removal of a senior employee. The content of an employment contract, including the type of work, may be changed only by agreement (Section 54); unilateral transfer to other work is permitted by Section 55 only on grounds unrelated to replacing a manager (health grounds, for example). An exception applies to positions for which an internal regulation requires election or appointment:

Where a special regulation lays down election or appointment as a precondition for holding the office of the statutory body, or where the employer’s internal regulation lays down election or appointment as a requirement for holding the office of a senior employee within the direct managerial remit of the statutory body, the employment relationship with that employee is established by a written employment contract only after their election or appointment.

— Section 42(2) of the Labour Code (unofficial English translation)

If you later remove such a manager, they cease to meet the requirements under Section 42(2), which is a ground for notice under Section 63(1)(d), point 2. Removal itself therefore neither ends nor changes the employment, and notice must be served properly, with a notice period under Section 62. This ground is not among the exceptions from the duty to offer alternative work, so before serving notice you must offer the manager other suitable work at the agreed place of work, if you have any (Section 63(2)).

The exception applies only to senior employees directly beneath the statutory body, and only where election or appointment is genuinely required by an internal regulation. It does not extend to a managing director or a member of the board: in judgment 8CdoPr/3/2024, the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic confirmed that holding the office of a statutory body is not dependent work and that no employment relationship with the same content arises. The dispute concerned the director of an association of legal persons, but the court expressly followed the case law on commercial companies and confined the exception under Section 42(2) to offices whose performance in an employment relationship is envisaged by a special statute. We examine this further in our article on concurrence of the office of managing director and an employment contract.

What to set out in the management contract

• In Czechia, an arrangement on removal and resignation from the post directly in the employment contract, with the position identified precisely so that it falls under Section 73(3) of the Czech statute.
• In Slovakia, an internal regulation requiring appointment for the position concerned, and an employment contract concluded only after it. Without that, all that remains is an agreement varying the contract or notice on another statutory ground.
• In both countries, rules on bonuses, a company car and other benefits tied to the office in case the manager moves to another position, and an alternative position if the company can offer one.

We prepare the wording of such arrangements as part of our management contract service. If removal has already occurred and you are dealing with notice, we will set up the procedure, including the duty to offer alternative work and the notice period, through termination of employment; we explain the length of the notice period in how long is the notice period.