In pursuance of the Act of 21 July 2016, electronically registered shipments are legally put on a par with shipments by registered mail.
Can this be used in employment law?
First of all, it is necessary to make sure the employer has the employee’s right mail address. The employment regulations can specify that the employee needs to give his/her mail address at the commencement of employment and that he/she is obliged to notify any new mail addresses to the employer. In the absence of a new mail address, the employer may assume that the first mail address is valid.
The regulations regarding electronically registered shipments specify that the recipient may refuse acceptance. It is not yet clear what the legal consequences of this are. Because the registered letter is a formal requirement on pain of invalidity in case of a termination and a dismissal for a just cause, it is therefore still too risky to do this by registered mail. This can be used without any problem for a notice of default or a termination of the contract of employment for example.