NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF LEGAL RELATIONSHIP AT WORK FOR A MEMBER OF A TRADE UNION

Abstract

The Constitution of the Republic of Latvia provides in Article 106, that everyone has the right to freely select employment and job according to the persons own abilities and skills. Forced labour is prohibited. Involvement in mitigation of emergencies and disasters impacts, as well as work pursuant to a court order is not considered forced labour. The article discusses notice of termination of legal relationship at work for the members of a trade union. Article 110 Part 1 of the Labour Law provides that an employer is prohibited to give a notice of termination to an employee who is a member of one or more trade unions, without the preliminary consent of the trade union. But the 6th part, Article 101 determines that the employer must clarify if the employee is a member of a trade union before termination of the employment contract. Accordingly, the employer has to ask the trade union for the permission, if the employer wishes to terminate the employment contract with a member of the trade union. In reality it could happen, that the employee is a member of several trade unions, and the employer could face several problematic situations, asking permission from several trade unions. As for the legal regulation, it also does not determine, how to act in such a situation, whether to ask the permission from all the trade unions where the employee has the membership or only to ask the permission of the trade union which is connected with the position in question of the employee.