The claim for reinstatement shall be filed within two months of the dismissal. This is what the General Assembly of the Civil Division of the Supreme Court of Cassation enacted in its new interpretative decision.
The case was initiated in early 2014 in order to unify the practice of the courts, since there were two binding decisions of different divisions of the SCC who supported two contradictory opinions. According to one of them, a claim for rehabilitation under art. 344, para. 1 pt. 2 of the Labor Code is conditioned by the termination of the employment by the employer. An unlawful dismissal and the resulting consequences of the unjustified termination of the employment contract were subject to this action and therefore the possibility to lodge a claim is applicable for a two-month period. The position of the other group of judges from the SCC was that the claim for reinstatement, as such with independent importance in comparison to this for the annulment of the unlawful dismissal may be brought on a general basis in a 3-year term that applies to all other labor disputes . Of course this will happen only if the claim for unfair dismissal has been granted by the court. The motives which were exposed are that the claim for reinstatement is incidental to the main – for the annulment of the order of dismissal and recognition of the dismissal as illegal, but is an independent claim and as such enjoys its own prescription period which is 3 years.
The General Assembly of the Civil Division of the SCC supported the first position and that decision is now mandatory for all.
author: Vesela Velinova, attorney-at-law
Member of “Velinov and partner” Consulting House
