Annulment of art. 48 of Law 4611/2019 on termination of employment agreements

On 08.08.2019 Law 4623/2019 was published in the Governmental Gazette, according to which art. 48 of Law 4611/2019 on termination of employment agreements is annulled with effect from the time it became applicable. More specifically, art. 48 of Law 4611/2019, which came into effect on 17.05.2019, stipulated that an employment agreement can be terminated in writing only on valid grounds, whereas the employer had the burden of proof thereof.

As a result of the annulment of the newly introduced provision of art. 48 of Law 4611/2019, the previous legal regime regarding termination conditions was re-established. Therefore, there is no obligation for the employer to state the reason of termination in the respective termination notification. However, if the employee challenges the validity of the employment agreement’s termination, the employer must be able to refute such claims. It should be noted that the annulment of art. 48 of Law 4611/2019 was effected as of the time it came into force, meaning that this provision will not produce legal effects not even for the time it was in force.