Duty of Obedience and Loyalty

An employee must undertake his/her work with care and comply with instructions given to him/her by the employer for the performance of the work. The employee obviously does not need to obey irrelevant or illegal instructions but in all other respects the employer may decide upon the content and form of the work.

The employer’s right to give instructions to employees must be within its supervisory rights.An employer may in certain circumstances by reason of its supervisory rights change conditions of the employment relationship such as work tasks, place of work and working hours. Significant changes may not be made pursuant to the supervisory right but such require the employee’s consent. Altering the employment conditions are handled more closely in section [Altering the Terms of the Employment].⁠

In addition to this so called duty of obedience, an employee has a duty of loyalty towards the employer.In their activities, employees shall avoid everything that conflicts with the actions reasonably required of employees in their position.The duty of loyalty includes treating the employer and his/her family respectfully and refraining from spreading negative rumors about the products or services of a company functioning as the employer. Well founded criticism is however not prohibited.The duty of loyalty is not limited to the employee’s behavior during working hours only but it is just as relevant during leisure-hours. It is also common to require greater loyalty from employees in managerial positions as opposed to other employees. Behavior which has a detrimental effect on the employer’s business activities, e.g. public criticism, may result in termination of the employment relationship.