Legal consequences of employee's death

An employment relationship is a legal relationship which, like any other legal relationship, ceases to produce its legal consequences in case one of the contracting parties ceases to exist. Thus, the employment contract does not have legal consequences if the employer ceases to exist, through bankruptcy or liquidation, but also in the event of the employee's death. Upon a natural person's death, his/her rights and obligations cease and are transferred to his/her heirs. However, all rights of a natural person are not inheritable, but only those related to property law, while those that are related to the personality of the deceased are not inheritable. In the event of the death of an employee, the question arises which rights of the employee can be inherited (i.e. which rights are of a property law nature), and which ones cannot be inherited (i.e. which rights are related to the personality of the employee). The death of the employee leads to the termination of the employment relationship, regardless of the will of the employer, i.e. "by force of law", but it also produces other consequences, considering that the employer has certain financial obligations towards the family of the deceased employee, and also towards the deceased employee because the employer is obliged to pay all the income that the employee earned until his/her death. Once the probate proceedings is initiated, the sums paid by the employer to the deceased employee's account enter the probate estate and become the subject of inheritance. Family members exercise the rights they have acquired on the basis of the death of the employee directly with the employer. These rights entail compensation for the costs of funeral services and possibly the right to joint solidarity assistance, if it is provided for by the general act of the employer or the employment contract, given that the joint solidarity assistance is not established by the Labor Act. One of the open questions is whether family members can claim rights from the employer, i.e. whether they submit a request for rights individually or jointly. In addition, if the employee's death occurred as a result of an injury at work or an occupational disease, the family members of the deceased employee would have the right to claim compensation from the employer. The Labor Act does not regulate in detail the consequences that occur in the event of the death of an employee, except for the right to compensation for the costs of funeral services that the family members of the deceased are entitled to. However, the rights of family members are more precisely regulated in special collective agreements. To resolve other open issues which are related to the consequences that occur in the event of the death of an employee, it is necessary to apply the rules of inheritance law, considering that in this case, it is a border area between inheritance law and employment law.