Warning

As a rule, an employee cannot be dismissed before they have been given an opportunity to amend their conduct. A warning may be spoken or issued in writing. 

However, if the intention is to later refer to the warning, it must be possible to prove that one was issued.

The employer must treat all employees equitably in terms of warnings (e.g., if the rule is two warnings before dismissal, this rule must always be followed.).

The warning itself has no legal bearing. Instead, it becomes significant if the employment contract is later terminated due to neglect of duties or similar breaches that have occurred repeatedly despite warnings.

A warning has no specific period of validity, e.g., a particular number of months or years. However, in practice an employer cannot cite very old warnings from several years in the past.

A warning pertains to an individual breach committed by the employee. If the employer has issued a warning about one breach and the employee later neglects their duties in another way, the employer usually cannot cite the first warning issued for a different reason as grounds for dismissal. On the other hand, several warnings issued for different reasons may in conjunction lead to a justified dismissal.

Assigning other duties

As a rule, the employer must first consult the employee and then determine whether dismissal could be avoided by assigning the employee to different duties.

However, if the employee’s breach of employment contract is so severe that the employer cannot reasonably be obliged to continue the contract, termination may be justified without a warning or efforts to reassign the employee.