Manager’s dismissal: reinstatement and partial compensation

XX challenged termination of a building manager’s employment contract with Narva linn, Tallinna mnt 32 korteriühistu, seeking reinstatement and 579,128 kroons for enforced absence. The association invoked loss of trust and argued that the relationship concerned board duties rather than employment. The court held the employment contract valid: its duties did not coincide with board responsibilities. Removal from the board did not itself terminate employment. The dismissal order for loss of trust lacked the required description and timing of misconduct, and the disciplinary time limit was breached. Termination was therefore held unlawful and XX reinstated to the former position. The monetary claim succeeded only for 6,581 kroons, representing one month’s compensation. The court considered absence of earnings throughout the claimed period unproved and took other employment and disproportionality of the full claim into account. Each party was left with its own costs. A source annotation records that on 11 December 2009 Tartu Ringkonnakohus reversed the monetary part and remitted it, leaving the rest unchanged. In a subsequent determination on 8 July 2016, the same circuit court increased compensation, reasoning from eight months; the full claimed period was not compensated and each party bore costs in both instances.