Concurrence of duties

(Decision of the Constitutional Court from 13 September 2016, file no. I. ÚS 190/15)

The claimant had a position of chairman of the board of directors as well as chief executive officer in a joint-stock company. He was then recalled from both of these positions and subsequently he was dismissed from his employment because of redundancy. The claimant then demanded a compensation of salary.

The courts of first and second instances initially did not uphold the objection of concurrence of duties and they granted the compensation to the claimant. The Supreme Court, however, revoked these decisions and decided that the employment contract had been concluded invalidly because of the concurrence of duties. The courts of first and second instances, to which the case was then returned, subsequently decided that the claimant had no right for the compensation of salary.

However, the decision of the Constitutional Court thus did not support the negative stance as to the concurrence of duties held by the lower courts. The Constitutional Court rules that the interpretation of the Labour Code does not prevent a company to subordinate its relationship with a member of its statutory board to the Labour Code.