Employment confirmation

What it means

The employment confirmation, known in practice as the offset sheet, is issued by the employer on termination of employment to every employee, who does not have to ask for it. It states the length of service, the type of work done and any wage deductions.

It is not the work reference, which appraises the employee and is issued only on request, nor the certificate of taxable income used for tax. The offset sheet carries facts the next employer needs, not an opinion of the person.

While the employment lasts, employees usually ask for something else: a proof of income for a bank loan or for a landlord. The Labour Code does not regulate that document; the bank sets the content on its own form, and the employer confirms the level and stability of pay, not the course of the employment.

How it works in practice

Payroll prepares it together with the deregistrations at the Social Insurance Agency and the health insurer, and files a copy in the personnel records. It also carries any agreed non-compete clause and any running attachment of earnings, including the ranking of the claims.

The new employer takes from it what must be respected in the new employment relationship from the first payslip, and the employee needs it at the labour office. Anyone disputing the content cannot force a change directly; they ask a court to have it corrected.

If an employee leaves without saying goodbye, for example on immediate termination of employment, we post the confirmation to the last known address and file a copy with the proof of posting. The duty to issue it stands however the parties parted.

What to watch out for

Leave a running attachment of earnings out of the confirmation and the new employer never starts deducting, so the bailiff can claim the undeducted sums from that employer as the payer of wages. The company settles a stranger’s debt out of its own money and then has to chase the employee for it.

A confirmation with the wrong length of service, or one issued very late, can cause the employee loss, for example on an entitlement that depends on those details. Under the Labour Code they may claim compensation from the employer, and a dispute over a few lines can cost more than handling the whole departure.