| Abstract [eng] |
Employees are subject to disciplinary liability for discipline violations. Labour discipline enforcement in the institution is ensured by the separate labour discipline institute established in the “Labour Discipline” section of the Labour Code. Violation of labour discipline is understood as failure to comply with the job duties in part or in full for the employee's fault. If the employee is in serious breach of the rules of procedure, the violation of labour discipline is qualified as a gross breach of work duties for which the employee is subject to the most severe disciplinary sanction – dismissal from work. Dismissal can be applied for one gross breach of labour duties or for two breaches of labour duties within twelve months if the first breach was punished by a disciplinary penalty – an admonition or reprimand. Dismissal raises a number of disputes and employees defend their violated rights by going to court. It is therefore extremely important to examine the case law of the Lithuanian Supreme Court on the legality of dismissal. Article 235 part 2 of the Labour Code contains the non-exhaustive list of cases where the offense can be classified as gross breach. Such a list causes a number of evaluation and interpretation problems in practice, therefore, the first part of the paper not only discusses the concept of the violation of labour discipline and gross breach of work duties but also presents a thorough analysis of the composition of the gross breach of work duties, consequences of the violation of labour discipline and procedure of penalties. The second part deals with the cases where the breach is considered a gross breach of work duties and analyses the case law of the Lithuanian Supreme Court on the legality of dismissal, in case of gross violation of labour discipline by the employee. The work describes the features according to which the offense is classified as a gross breach, and the criteria according to which the violation can be considered a gross breach of labour discipline. It is also analyses the criteria based on which the employee can be dismissed for gross breach of work duties. The third part, using the comparative method of analysis, examines the new draft Labour Code, which is likely to be adopted in the near future. |
