Dismissed: What to Do Next

The first 48 hours: what to do right after receiving your notice

How you behave in the first hours after receiving a notice of termination can decide whether you keep entitlements you may not even know you have. I recommend following four steps.

If, after these four steps, you have doubts about the validity of the notice, I recommend having it reviewed as soon as possible. Given the deadline described below, it is not worth delaying.

When a notice of termination is invalid

In practice, the invalidity of a notice of termination most often relates to one of three areas: form, reason, and protected periods.

• ✓Missing or incorrect form: the notice is not in writing, lacks the signature of an authorized person, or was not properly delivered.
• ✓Missing or vague reason: the notice does not state any of the reasons listed in Section 52 of the Labour Code, or the reason is described so generally that the underlying facts cannot be verified or distinguished from another reason.
• ✓Protected period: the notice was given while you were temporarily incapable of work, pregnant, or on maternity or parental leave, or in other situations under Section 53 of the Labour Code. What matters is your status at the moment the notice was delivered, not at the moment it was drafted.
• ✓Pretextual reason: the employer formally states a different reason (for example, breach of duties) to avoid the obligation to pay severance, when the real reason is redundancy. This too is a reason for legal review.

However, a notice does not become invalid automatically. Invalidity must be pronounced by a court based on your lawsuit; until then, the notice is considered valid and the employment relationship formally ends when the notice period expires.

The 2-month deadline: do not miss the lawsuit challenging validity (Section 72 of the Labour Code)

Under Section 72 of the Labour Code, you may only assert the invalidity of a notice of termination by filing a lawsuit with the court, no later than 2 months from the day the employment relationship was supposed to end under the notice, i.e. typically from the day the notice period expires, not from the day the notice was delivered.

This deadline is a limitation period: if you miss it, the right to have the notice declared invalid is lost entirely, and the court takes this into account even without the employer raising an objection. It is not enough to simply post the lawsuit on the last day of the deadline; it must actually reach the court within that deadline.

Together with filing the lawsuit (or even before it), I recommend notifying your employer in writing and without undue delay that you insist on continuing to be employed. Without this notification, you may not acquire the right to compensation for lost wages described below, even if you succeed in the dispute.

What claims you are entitled to

Even a valid notice of termination does not mean the end of your entitlements. Depending on the reason for the notice and its subsequent fate in court, you may be entitled to:

• ✓Severance pay under Section 67 of the Labour Code, if the employment relationship ends for organizational reasons (Section 52(a) to (c)). You can calculate the amount of severance pay you are entitled to, based on the length of your employment, using the severance pay calculator.
• ✓Lump-sum compensation under Section 271ca of the Labour Code, if the employment relationship ends under Section 52(d) due to a workplace injury, occupational disease, or the risk of such a disease. Since 1 June 2025 this replaces the former severance pay, amounts to twelve times average earnings, and is paid by the insurer from the employer’s statutory insurance.
• ✓Compensation for lost wages in the event of an invalid notice under Section 69 of the Labour Code. If the court declares the notice invalid and you notified your employer in time that you insist on continued employment, you are entitled to compensation equal to average earnings for the entire period during which your employer wrongfully failed to employ you. If that period exceeds 6 months, the court may, at the employer’s request, reasonably reduce the compensation for the further period, taking into account, among other things, whether you found other work in the meantime.
• ✓Payment for unused leave and any unpaid wage components you were entitled to by the end of the employment relationship.

These claims do not exclude one another. A lawsuit challenging the validity of the notice does not cause you to lose severance pay if you are entitled to it based on the reason for the notice.

Unemployment benefits and registering with the Labour Office

I recommend registering with the Labour Office no later than 3 working days after your employment ends. Your registration then applies retroactively from the first day without work, so you do not end up with a gap in your health insurance that you would otherwise have to make up yourself.

The amount of unemployment benefits (under the rules in effect from January 2026) depends on your average net earnings and how long you have been registered: usually 80% for the first two months, usually 50% for the next two months, and 40% of average earnings for the remainder of the support period. For applicants over 52, the first two bands are extended to 3 months. However, the support period and the specific benefit amount vary by age and individual circumstances; the Labour Office will calculate the exact amount for you when you file your application.

You only receive benefits from the day you are registered, not retroactively for the period before you registered, so it is not worth delaying registration even if you are considering challenging the notice in court: you can pursue registration and a potential dispute over the notice’s validity at the same time.

Notice period: when your employment actually ends

Under Section 51 of the Labour Code, the statutory notice period is generally at least 2 months and is the same for both parties, unless the employer and employee have agreed on a longer period (a shorter one cannot be agreed). Since 1 June 2025 (following the so-called flexible amendment), the notice period runs from the day the notice is delivered to the other party and ends on the day that numerically corresponds to that day; if there is no such day in the last month, it ends on the last day of that month. Exception: for a notice given by the employer for reasons under Section 52(f) to (h) (unsatisfactory work results, grounds for immediate termination or serious breach of duties, gross breach of the regime of a person temporarily incapable of work), the notice period is at least 1 month.

So your employment does not end on the day you receive the notice, but generally two months later, counted from the day of delivery, not from the end of the calendar month as before the flexible amendment. During the entire notice period, your standard duties and entitlements continue, including wages, as long as your employer actually assigns you work.

Notice, mutual agreement, or immediate termination? What is the difference

Employers sometimes offer an agreement to terminate the employment relationship instead of giving notice. The differences are significant and affect your entitlements too:

• ✓Notice of termination is a unilateral legal act, must have a statutory reason, and has a notice period. You can challenge it in court under Section 72 of the Labour Code.
• ✓Agreement to terminate the employment relationship requires the consent of both parties; employment can end on practically any date without a notice period. But an agreement can also be challenged in court for invalidity, for example if you signed it under duress or without proper instruction. The same 2-month deadline under Section 72 of the Labour Code applies to an agreement as well.
• ✓Immediate termination of the employment relationship by the employer is exceptional and limited to serious breaches of duty or a final conviction for an intentional criminal offense to an unconditional prison sentence of more than 1 year, or at least 6 months for an offense committed while performing work tasks (Section 55 of the Labour Code); employment ends immediately, without a notice period. That is precisely why it is most often challenged as invalid; the conditions for its use are strict.

Before you sign anything or let the deadline to defend yourself lapse, I recommend having the type and content of the document you received reviewed. The difference between a notice and an agreement often decides whether it even makes sense to fight it in court.

Frequently asked questions about dismissal

Who will handle your case

Ing. Mgr. Tomáš Beneš

Attorney registered with the Czech Bar Association, based in Prague.

Law degree from Charles University. I focus on business law, real estate and employment disputes. I handle every case personally, no assistants.

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