Legal consequences of not ensuring proper working conditions to perform scientific work by the employer

Abstract

Legal working conditions of a university teacher are characterized by a particular duty determining the time of its duration. Irrespective of the accepted periods of employment, the opportunities of work on the position of assistant or senior lecturer are temporarily reduced. Article 120 of Act of 27 July 2005 - Law on higher education from which the above restriction derives, was replaced on 1 October, 2013. The legislator, retaining the competence of university bodies in respect of establishing the period of employment on recommended posts for persons not having a doctor’s or habilitated doctor’s degree, is implementing a stiff maximum date – eight years. Such structure of employment relationship implements on the university teacher the duty of increasing formal qualifications, of getting a higher university degree in closely defined time limits. The infringement of the this obligation results in the necessity for termination of the employment contract. In the article the author is analysing the above aspect from a perspective of obligations of the employer, in particular of the duty to provide the employee with the possibility to perform his work. Consequences resulting from the inability to conduct scientific work due to the university’s fault are presented. They reach the issue of legality and rules of social coexistence on one hand, and the employer’s supplementing liability for damages on the other.