My employer has not paid my wages. Can I terminate the employment immediately, and what am I entitled to?

The pay date has passed, nothing has arrived in the account and the employer promises to send the money “next week”. Where this repeats, the employee usually does not want to work out another two months of notice. In such a situation the Labour Code (Act No. 311/2001 Coll.) allows them to leave immediately and charges the employer wage compensation for it. The conditions are precise, however, and a mistake in them can turn a dispute against the employee.

When does the ground arise?

An employee may terminate the employment immediately if […] the employer has failed to pay them wages, wage compensation, travel allowances, compensation for standby duty, income compensation during temporary incapacity for work, or part of them, within 15 days of their due date […]

— Section 69(1) of the Labour Code (unofficial English translation)

What is decisive is therefore the due date. Wages fall due in arrears for a monthly period, at the latest by the end of the following calendar month, unless otherwise agreed in a collective agreement or the employment contract (Section 129(1)). Look first at your employment contract, and at any collective agreement, to see which pay date is agreed there, and count fifteen days from when it passes. The ground does not arise only on complete non-payment; the statute links it to an unpaid part of the wages as well. Even then, however, prepare evidence of how much should have arrived and how much did: the payslip, the bank statement and the employment contract.

Time limit and form

An employee may terminate employment immediately only within one month of the day on which they learned of the ground (Section 69(3)). The period therefore generally begins to run as soon as fifteen days have elapsed from the due date, and waiting for further promises from the employer does not interrupt it. Once it has expired, non-payment of those wages may no longer be relied on as a ground for immediate termination; if the employer also fails to pay further wages falling due, the period for those is assessed separately.

The same rules on form apply as for the employer. The immediate termination must be in writing, the ground must be defined factually in it so that it cannot be confused with another, and it must be delivered to the employer within the period, otherwise it is invalid; the ground stated may not be changed later (Section 70). It is therefore not enough to write “for non-payment of wages”. State for which month the wages are missing, when they fell due and that they were not paid even within fifteen days of the due date.

An employee delivers their documents at the workplace or by registered post (Section 38(3)). Delivery occurs when the employer accepts the document, when the post returns it as undeliverable, or when the employer frustrates delivery; the same effects arise where acceptance is refused (Section 38(4)). If handing it over in person, have receipt confirmed on a copy. If sending by post, do so with time to spare, because the document must be delivered within the period, not merely dispatched.

What you are entitled to

The employment ends upon delivery of the immediate termination, with no notice period. An employee who has terminated employment immediately is entitled to wage compensation in the amount of their average monthly earnings for a notice period of two months (Section 69(4)). This compensation does not replace the wages owed; the employer still owes those, and both claims may be pursued together. On termination of the employment the employer must also issue you with a certificate of employment (Section 75(2)).

If the ground does not stand

The employer may also seek a declaration that the immediate termination is invalid before the court, within two months of the day on which the employment was to end (Section 77). If the court concludes that the ground was not made out and the employer notified you that it insists on your continuing to work, the employment does not end, and if you then did not perform the work, the employer may claim from you compensation for the loss thereby caused to it from the day of that notification (Section 78(1) and (2)). If it does not insist on continued work, the employment is deemed to have ended by agreement on the day on which it was to end, and it cannot claim compensation for loss (Section 78(3) and (4)).

How we can help

We will assess and prepare the ground, the time limit and the wording of the document as part of our immediate termination of employment service. If the employer challenges your immediate termination or refuses to pay the wage compensation, we will conduct the dispute as part of invalid termination of employment. We examine the other side of the coin, namely when an employer may terminate immediately, in immediate termination by the employer.