Termination of an Employment Agreement during the Trial Period

The employer and employee may agree upon a trial period, which will start at the commencement of the employment relationship and, as a rule, last up to six months. In a fixed-term employment relationship the trial period may at most constitute half of the duration of the employment contract and be no more than six months. For further information, see [Trial Period]⁠.

The trial period provides the employer a chance to consider whether or not the employee is suitable for the job. On the other hand, it also offers the employee a chance to consider does he/she really want to work for the employer. During the trial period it is possible both for the employer and the employee to terminate (without the grounds for termination or cancellation of employment relationships set in the Employment Contracts Act) the employment agreement to end immediately.

Neither the employer nor the employee must give any reason for the cancellation. The employer must, however, provide an explanation of the appropriate reasons behind the cancellation if the employee so requests. In principle, when a trial period has been agreed upon, and the cancellation takes place during the trial period, the cancellation is allowed. However, it is forbidden to cancel the employment relationship during a trial period due to discriminating or, in regard to the purpose of the trial period, inappropriate reasons. Thus, the ground for cancellation cannot e.g. be the employee's religion, sex, age, pregnancy, nationality, ethnic heritage, sexual orientation, language, political views or activities, family, union ties or any other comparable reason. Furthermore, production-related and/or financial reasons of the employer do not constitute valid trial period cancellation grounds. Being elected as shop steward or another employee representative on the other hand does not invalidate the trial period term, i.e. the individual’s employment relationship can still be cancelled during his/her trial period.

In case an employee presents grounds indicating that the cancellation was due to inappropriate reasons, it is up to the employer to prove that the cancellation was in fact due to appropriate reasons. Among others, reasons related to the performance of the employee’s work tasks has been seen as appropriate, e.g. unauthorized absences, being late, as well as a general mismatch or a mismatch with regards to e.g. the work tasks or environment: The mismatch does not have to be directly related to the work performance. It can also relate to other behavior at the work place.

A cancellation during the trial period has to be carried out during the trial period, i.e. the cancellation notice has to be given to the employee in person, or if that is not possible, be sent by mail or electronically by the latest on the last day of the trial period. The employer should before terminating the employment give the employee an opportunity to be heard regarding the termination. The employee is allowed to use an aid /assistant when being heard. If requested by the employee, the employer must state the true termination grounds known to the employer. These grounds must be presented at the hearing.