The Employment, and Dispute Resolution teams successfully completed the court proceedings in an employment dispute involving a top manager, a foreign citizen, laid off due to downsizing.
As part of an intra-group reorganization, the client of KIAP, Attorneys at Law, decided to terminate the employment of an employee whose job was no longer relevant for the employer due to a change in its operational business. As the top manager did not want to sign the statement of mutual agreement, his employment agreement was terminated due to downsizing.
Disagreeing with the dismissal, the employee filed a court claim, including by arguing that he had not been offered to apply to some vacant jobs, which he could have applied to. When asked by the judge and the prosecutor, the employee’s representatives were unable to explain what specific vacant jobs he could have applied to, in addition to the more than 50 positions offered by the employer, and why he himself had not asked to be given that job (considering the employee’s status in the company). For 5 months, the claimant has filed repeated motions to request documents from the employer on all staff rotations during the downsizing period, including vacant jobs in other locations with salaries tens of times lower than the salary of the dismissed top manager.
As a result of numerous court hearings, KIAP team was able to prove both that the downsizing was valid and the employer met all downsizing procedures under the labour law.
"The last year has shown that employees, even top managers, have become less able to negotiate and, in case of conflict, claim the amounts that significantly exceed the severance pay under the labour law from their employers. For example, the highest amount of compensation claimed by an employee for dismissal by mutual agreement, which we encountered in our practice this year, was 36 salaries," notes Julia Paushkina, Lawyer, Head of the Employment practice at KIAP.
"In addition, any employer is a businessman who can trade-off to some extent, but will not act to the detriment of its business interests. So, when terminating an employment, it is important to maintain a balance of interests for both parties," Julia sums up.
The project was managed by Julia Paushkina, Lawyer, Head of the Employment practice at KIAP, Dmitry Kazankov, Senior Associate, and Artem Gritsuk, Junior Associate.