It is stipulated under Article 27 (1) (c) of proclamation 377/96 employment may be terminated without notice if the employee commits a deceitful or fraudulent conduct in carrying out his duties having regard to the gravity of the case. 

Accordingly, if a worker provided an inadequate and fraudulent work experience, can an employee categorize it under article 27(1) (C) and terminate the employee with out notice? 

A case finalized in the Cassation bench showed that an employer can terminate a worker without notice if the worker provided a fraudulent work experience. 

The suit initiated after the claim of the defendant stating that he was working in the applicants company, but since the applicant terminated the employment contract with out giving notice, the defendant asked the court to order either re-instatement or payment of compensation. 

The court, after analyzing the issue, came to a decision that what Article 27(1) (c) is referring to is a deceitful or fraudulent conduct after the employment (in the work place). Since the stated act doesn’t fall under this provision, it decided the termination of contract was unlawful. Hence it ordered the reinstatement of the employee with payment of 2 months wage as compensation. The Federal High Court, upon appeal enforced the lower court’s decision.     

The Cassation bench looked at the issue at hand and came to see that the defendant were in the first place hired with a false and fraudulent information and since he was working with this information in the company, then it should be interpreted that the act was committed during their performance in the work place.

Having said that, the bench dismissed the decisions of lower courts and stated that the termination was lawful and no payment or reinstatements should be made. 

What we can understand from this is that the scope of Article 27(1) (C) doesn’t only talk about acts committed after employment but it also extends to any fraudulent or false information provided by the employee during hiring.

 If you have an additional question or comment please  Contact us.

Any pertinent information on the subject can be available from any Ethiopian Lawyer, Ethiopian Employment Lawyer, Ethiopian Investment Lawyer, Ethiopian Tax lawyer, Ethiopian Immigration lawyer, Ethiopian divorce Lawyer, Ethiopian Tax lawyer, and Ethiopian Labour Relationship Lawyer.