Attorney Annika Vait’s article in legal blog: when is it allowed to conclude a fixed-term employment contract?

Annika wrote in this month’s legal post that according to § 9 of the Employment Contracts Act, it is expected that the employment contract is concluded without a term. Fixed-term employment contracts may be concluded if it is justified with the nature of the temporary work, in particular, a temporary increase in the volume of work, seasonal work, or in the case of temporary replacement of an absent employee.

As a rule an employment contracts should be concluded without a term and concluding temporary employment contracts is permitted only in the case of the temporary nature of the work.

Such restriction of fixed-term contract is imposed to protect the employee as the weaker party in the employment relationship. The Supreme Court has explained that the wording nor the spirit of the law do not imply that the contract could be concluded for duration of employer’s lease contract or other contract. Employers’ fixed-term contracts with third parties or other fixed-term legal relationships do not change the nature of the work itself. The court emphasizes that in case of other fixed-term legal relations, the fixed-term employment contract can be concluded only when the employee’s work has temporary nature, for example a temporary increase in work volume, seasonality, or other temporary situation.

Therefore, before concluding fixed-term employment contract, it should be verified that the work has temporary nature, since it is the only case, when concluding a fixed-term employment contract is permitted.

The blog’s post is available here: http://addenda.ee/vandeadvokaat-annika-vait-millal-on-lubatud-tahtajalise-toolepingu-solmimine

For further information, please contact Annika by e-mail annika@alternalaw.ee or by phone +372 680 6850.

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