Official Performance Appraisal of Firefighters of the State Fire Service – Between the Superior’s Discretion in Assessment and Guarantees of Protection for the Officer

This article analyses the legal model of official performance appraisal for firefighters in the State Fire Service, with particular emphasis on the relationship between the scope of superiors’ discretion in assessment and the guarantees of legal protection afforded to the officer being appraised. The analysis covers the normative foundations, legal nature and functions of the official performance appraisal, the appraisal criteria and procedure, as well as the measures available for reviewing an issued appraisal. The body of administrative court case law concerning the classification of an official performance appraisal as an internal service act not subject to direct judicial-administrative review is also taken into account. The study indicates that the current model gives superiors a relatively broad scope of discretion in assessment, while firefighters' protection rests primarily on internal mechanisms. This leads to the conclusion that the existing arrangements do not fully balance the service's interests with the need to protect officers against arbitrary assessment. Consequently, de lege ferenda proposals focus, in particular, on clarifying appraisal criteria, strengthening the obligation to provide reasons for an appraisal, extending procedural guarantees, and considering limited judicial review in cases involving appraisals that produce particularly significant consequences for the course of service.