In today's article, we continue the topic of liability that an employee may incur within the framework of his or her employment relationship with a given employer, namely the employee's material liability.
Financial liability consists in the failure to perform or improper performance of employee duties due to the employee's fault, resulting in damage to the employer.
Types of liability
According to the Labor Code, we can distinguish two types of employee liability for damage caused to the employer:
- material liability on general principles, i.e. universal liability which covers all employees and
- liability for entrusted property, which arises when the employee is entrusted with the employer's property under an additional agreement for accounting or return.
Material liability under general principles
This liability arises from the moment an employment relationship is established between the employee and the employer. The regulations do not define what constitutes a breach of duty or improper performance. It is assumed that this may occur as a result of taking inappropriate action or failing to take action at all.
It's important to note that the employer bears the burden of proving that an employee is responsible for the damage and at fault (intentional or unintentional). If damage is caused by multiple employees, each employee is individually liable according to their fault. If it is impossible to determine the individual fault of each employee, all are equally liable.
Responsibility for property entrusted to an employee
Entrusting property to an employee means handing over this property to the employee on the basis of an appropriate receipt.
The main principles that characterize this liability are the employee's full liability for the damage incurred and the presumption of employee fault. An employee can only be released from this liability if they prove that the damage to the property was caused by circumstances beyond their control. This includes, for example, theft of entrusted property by a third party, or, in particular, the employer's failure to ensure adequate conditions for securing entrusted property.
Employees may be entrusted with various types of property: work clothes, work footwear, money, securities, or other valuables, tools and instruments, or similar items, as well as personal protective equipment. The employer is responsible for ensuring that the property is entrusted to the employee properly, meaning that the employer must provide the employee with precisely defined property, with their prior consent, of which the employee is aware of its type, quantity, and value.
individual responsibility , which is borne by only one employee, or joint responsibility , which involves entrusting the care of property to several employees jointly.
The employer's entrusting of property to several employees jointly requires the signing of an agreement on joint financial liability, which must be concluded in writing under pain of nullity.
Such an agreement may be concluded if the number of employees at the place of entrustment of the property does not exceed:
- when working in one shift of 8 people,
- 12 people working in two shifts,
- 16 people working in three shifts.
Employees who share financial liability are held jointly and severally liable, in accordance with the provisions of the contract. If it is proven that damage was caused solely by some employees, only those employees will be held liable for the damage, in whole or in part, for which they are responsible.
The Employee Joint Liability Agreement ceases to apply upon termination of the employment relationship. Furthermore, any change in the composition of employees covered by joint liability requires the signing of a new agreement.
Summary
The principles of financial liability are exhaustively regulated in the Labor Code. This means that it is inadmissible to rely on bills of exchange law to provide additional security for an employer's claims.
We invite you to follow our next articles, where we will focus on the issue of employee disciplinary liability.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Legal status as of January 25, 2024
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