Of the dismissal cases that end up before an Albanian court, most are not lost because the employer had no reason. They are lost because the reason was not handled through the procedure the Labour Code prescribes, or because nobody kept a document proving that the procedure was followed.
I see this procedure from both sides of the table: inside a company where I handle around a hundred dismissals a year, and in the law office when an employee arrives with a termination letter in hand and asks whether it is worth contesting. This guide explains the rules as they are actually applied.
Two different routes, with different consequences
The Labour Code gives an employer two distinct ways to end an employment relationship.
Ordinary termination with notice. The employer follows the procedure of article 144, respects the notice period of article 143, and the relationship ends when that period expires. This is the normal route, even where the reason concerns conduct or performance.
Immediate termination. The relationship ends on the spot, without notice, because there is a justified cause under article 153. This is the exceptional route, and it is used far more often than the law allows.
The difference is not a formality. It determines whether the employee is paid for the notice period, whether the seniority award is kept, and from which day the deadline for going to court starts to run.
The article 144 procedure — the step most often skipped
After the probation period, when the employer intends to terminate the contract, article 144 requires three consecutive steps:
- Written notice at least 72 hours before a meeting. Not a verbal notice, not a phone call. The 72 hours are not a formality: they exist so the employee has time to prepare and, if they wish, take advice.
- The meeting. The employer presents the reasons for the decision it intends to take and gives the employee the opportunity to respond. The law requires a genuine conversation, not the reading of a decision already signed.
- A written decision, between 48 hours and one week after the meeting. In it the employer states the reasons for termination, which must relate to grounds such as the employee's ability or conduct, or the operational requirements of the business.
The Code does not prescribe the form of the meeting. In practice it increasingly takes place remotely, over a communication platform, and that in itself does not breach the procedure — provided the employee is genuinely given the chance to respond and the meeting is documented. If a properly invited employee does not attend, the procedure continues; what must be proven is the invitation, not the attendance.
Under point 5/1 of article 144, the burden of proving that the procedure was respected lies with the employer. This is the provision that decides most cases. An employer with no registered notice, no minutes of the meeting and no written reasoned decision walks into court with nothing in hand, however genuine the reason for dismissal was.
Notice periods by length of service
Article 143 ties the notice period to the length of the relationship (during probation, article 142 applies):
| Length of employment | Notice period |
|---|---|
| During probation (first 3 months) | 5 days |
| Up to 6 months | 2 weeks |
| Over 6 months up to 2 years | 1 month |
| Over 2 years up to 5 years | 2 months |
| Over 5 years | 3 months |
Three details that change the calculation:
- The period is extended to the end of the week or the end of the month, as the case may be. A one-month notice given on the 10th does not expire on the 10th of the following month.
- During the notice period, where the employer terminates, the employee is entitled to at least 20 hours of paid leave per week to look for new work.
- Where a party terminates without respecting the notice period, the termination is treated as one with immediate effect, with all the consequences that carries for the employer.
The employer may not terminate while the employee is receiving temporary incapacity benefit, for up to one year, or while the employee is on leave granted by the employer. This prohibition in article 147 is breached routinely, especially when a medical certificate arrives after the procedure has started.
When immediate termination is allowed
Article 153 permits immediate termination for justified causes, defined as serious circumstances which, under the principle of good faith, make it unreasonable to expect the terminating party to continue the relationship. The law gives two concrete indicators: breach of contractual duties through serious fault, or breach through minor fault, repeatedly, despite a written warning from the employer.
That last phrase carries practical weight. Lateness, missed targets or inappropriate behaviour rarely amount to serious fault on their own; they become a justified cause only where there is a history of written warnings. An employer who has issued no warning and terminates immediately is building the case on sand.
Whether the cause was justified is ultimately for the court to decide, not the employer.
What a breached procedure costs
The financial consequences are cumulative, and this is what most employers do not calculate in advance:
- Two months' salary where the article 144 procedure is not respected, in addition to any other compensation.
- Up to one year's salary, plus pay for the notice period, where the termination is without reasonable cause under article 146(3) or where immediate termination turns out to be unjustified under article 155(3).
- The seniority award, at least 15 days' pay for every full year of service, where the relationship lasted at least three years. This award is lost only where an immediate termination turns out to be justified.
- Up to six months' salary where the collective redundancy procedure of article 148 is breached.
Article 146(3) declares a termination without reasonable cause invalid, but the express obligation to reinstate applies to employees in public administration, where there is a final court decision. In the private sector, in our assessment, the employee's realistic expectation should be financial compensation rather than reinstatement.
The 180-day deadline — and the day it starts
The employee has 180 days to file a claim. The starting date depends on the type of termination:
- For termination without reasonable cause, the period runs from the day the notice period ends (article 146(2)).
- For unjustified immediate termination, it runs from the day the employment relationship was terminated (article 155(4)).
Where the abusive or unjustified motive is discovered after these deadlines, the claim must be filed within 30 days of discovery.
This deadline loses more cases than any argument on the merits. The employee waits for a reply from the employer, waits for the final payment, waits to find another job, and by the time they see a lawyer seven months have passed. At that point even a plainly unlawful dismissal cannot be saved.
When it is worth challenging
In my experience, cases with real prospects share at least one of these features:
- There was no meeting at all, or the meeting took place without the prior 72-hour notice.
- The written decision gives no concrete reasons, or uses general formulas such as "due to reorganisation" without any supporting element.
- The reason written in the decision does not match the real reason, which emerges from internal communications.
- The dismissal came immediately after the employee raised claims arising from the employment contract, fulfilled a legal obligation or exercised a constitutional right. Article 146 expressly classes these as terminations without reasonable cause.
- The contract was terminated during sick leave or during leave granted by the employer.
- Immediate termination was applied without any prior written warning.
It is less worthwhile where the procedure was followed correctly, the reason is documented, and the employee has already received notice pay and the seniority award. In such cases a negotiated settlement often produces a better outcome than litigation that runs for years.
For employers — five rules that close cases before they start
Notify in writing, with proof of delivery. Email with confirmation, a registered letter or a protocol number. For a court, verbal communication never happened.
Keep minutes of the meeting. Date, time, participants, the reasons presented, what the employee said. Where the meeting is held online and recorded, the employee must be informed in advance.
Write the concrete reason in the decision. "Operational requirements of the business" with no explanation is an empty formula that a court reads as absence of reason.
Check the calendar before you start. Length of service sets the notice period, the period extends to the end of the week or month, and a medical certificate in the middle suspends it.
Do not use immediate termination as a shortcut. Without documented serious fault or prior written warnings, the notice period you saved turns into compensation of up to a year's salary.
In short
Dismissal is a procedure with written steps and measurable deadlines, not a decision taken in a meeting. An employee who knows the procedure can tell within minutes whether it was followed; an employer who applies it with documents avoids a liability that can exceed several months' salary.
If you have received a termination decision and are not sure the procedure was respected, do not let the deadline run while you decide. One hundred and eighty days look long only on the first day; assessing the file takes far less than that, and it is done once.