Serious Violation of Workers’ Rights in a Situation when Employees Refrain from Work due to Employer’s Failure to Provide Safe and Hygienic Working Conditions

Abstract

The paper examines a situation in which an employee is entitled to terminate the contract of employment without prior notice. The case under examination occurs when the employer commits a serious violation of workers’ rights by failing to provide safe and hygienic working conditions. The paper also presents topic related controversies that have arisen in the doctrine and judicature and tries to establish at which point one may speak of a breach of fundamental labour rights and on the basis of which regulations the employer may be held liable. The authors also try to determine whether certain situations could constitute a basis for termination of the employment contract by the employee, at the same time giving rise to the right to claim damages from the employer. Other issues touched upon in the paper include the absence of a catalogue of infringements in the Polish Labour Code and the way of assessing the weight of various infringements.