Duty of Loyalty of the Employment Relationship Parties

Abstract

The article discusses the duty of loyalty of employee and employer as a mandatory employment relationship. Despite the fact that the Labour Code does not explicitly impose such a duty, both for the employee and the employer, recently the disloyal employee behavior towards the employer has become a frequent reason justifying the termination of the employment contract with notice and even without notice. Therefore, it became reasonable to determine whether the duty of loyalty is an element of the employment relationship, and if so from which of the provisions of the Labour Code such an obligation can be derived. The considerations carried out in this study resulted in the statement that most often, where there is a duty of employee loyalty, in fact, we have to deal with another employee’s obligation expressly stipulated in the labour law. Most often it is the duty to care for the good of the employer. There is no doubt that the employee should be loyal in the performance of their duties towards the employer. The order of the employee’s loyal behavior in connection with the performance of duties from the employment relationship with the employer is based on the obligation to observe the rules of social coexistence. Similarly, mutatis mutandis, the employer should behave towards the employee.