The relatively free structuring of terminations of employment contracts in Liechtenstein is restricted by the termporal protection against termination. This temporary protection against termination serves to maintain the current job for a certain period of time, since the employee can hardly obtain a new job due to certain facts (e.g. due to illness). The loss of his job with its social consequences would affect him especially hard, therefore he must be protected for a certain period of time.
The employee is only entitled to this temporal protection against termination if the termination by the employer is ordinary. If the employment relationship ends in any other way, there is no protection. In addition, the expiring of the probation period is required.
Furthermore, the fulfilment of a special protective circumstance must be given. Such a case arises if the employee is prevented from working due to illness or accident without his own fault, or if the employee is pregnant. It should be noted that the protection only applies for a certain period of time (blocking period, so-called "Sperrfrist"), which must be determined according to the respective individual case.
Now the question arises how the temporal protection against termination affects the respective employment relationship. If there is an underlying protective circumstance, a distinction must be made between two constellations: termination during the blocking period and termination before a blocking period.
If the employer declares the ordinary termination during a blocking period (e.g. during a period of inability to work due to illness), the termination is null and void. The employment relationship therefore remains in force.
If, on the other hand, the employee is only prevented from working during the notice period, for example due to illness without his own fault, the termination declared by the employer prior to the suspension period is in principle effective. However, there may be a considerable temporal extension of the employment relationship in this case as the suspension period may interrupt the notice period and the notice period will resume after the blocked period has expired. As a result, the period between the notice of termination and the actual end of the employment relationship can be significantly extended.
In order to preserve the existing employment relationship in the best possible way for the employee, but also to effectively comply with the employer's wish to terminate the employment relationship, various related details must be taken into account, and, depending on the individual case, other aspects (such as wage payment) must be examined.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
